


Once in a Blind Eye

by ScreamHoney



Category: One Piece
Genre: Ace is Blind, Ace is wary, BlindAU, I'm not a nice author, It's so lovely, M/M, Marco is a sweetie, prepare your heart, the protectiveness!!!, uhhh watch out for the random pairings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-05
Updated: 2016-09-11
Packaged: 2018-02-16 05:26:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 15
Words: 94,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2257470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScreamHoney/pseuds/ScreamHoney
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being blind never stopped Ace from doing what he wanted. To him it was a weakness, but not much of a burden. Keeping his disability hidden, Ace rose in the pirate world catching the eye of the Whitebeard Pirates. How long can Ace keep himself from opening up and fully joining this crew? Especially with a first mate that is set on breaking down every wall Ace ever built. MarcoAce Yaoi</p><p>This is also on FanFiction under Lifeless Heartless</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Marco say what, yoi?

**Author's Note:**

> Sometimes I like to write strange things, writing my favorite characters blind is one of my favorites ^_^
> 
> This started because Setsuyume was a dear and wrote me a MarcoAce Rec list and dammit now the couple is on my mind all the time. Also one of the fics featured Blind!Ace so I was like, “Hmmm I wonder what would happen if Ace was always blind? BlindPirateAU? HELL YEAH!!!
> 
> Dedicated to: Setsuyume and EstellaKaleo cause Setsu got me into the damn pairing and Estella is my baby~ ^_^

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes I like to write strange things, writing my favorite characters blind is one of my favorites ^_^  
> This started because Setsuyume was a dear and wrote me a MarcoAce Rec list and dammit now the couple is on my mind all the time. Also one of the fics featured Blind!Ace so I was like, "Hmmm I wonder what would happen if Ace was always blind? BlindPirateAU? HELL YEAH!  
> Dedicated to: Setsuyume and EstellaKaleo cause Setsu got me into the damn pairing and Estella is my baby~ ^_^  
> Edited: 09-15-2014: Added about a thousand words? Made it more detailed for sure, and a little more believable XP

**SET SAIL!!**

You would think that the idea of sailing on open waters would be utterly terrifying to someone who cannot see. That would be obvious, with no idea where you are heading, and not being able to see things coming at you, it's just common sense to stay on land, where it is safer. Of course Portgas D. Ace is not a normal person.

He wasn't born blind, but became so rather gradually starting with fuzzy vison when he was about four and getting progressively worse as the years went on, until the age of 10 and his vison was completely shot, no fuzzy shapes, no kind of outlines, just darkness.

He was surprised for maybe a few seconds but Ace knew this was coming, so he didn’t freak out, not like his brother, Sabo. Might have something to do with how nonchalantly Ace mentioned it over breakfast, but no matter how unaffected Ace was, Sabo flipped absolute shit, ranting and raving through breakfast about stupid brothers and mentioning life-changing information like it was the weather.

His other brother, Luffy, on the other hand, just kind of looked at Ace funny and asked if that meant there would be more meat left for him. Needless to say the youngest brother got a rather nice punch from Ace for that.

Sabo and Luffy both already knew that Ace’s vision was bad; they just thought that he needed some glasses and then would be fine. The two just didn’t realize that it meant Ace was going blind.

What truly worried Sabo was how Ace would fare in the jungle with this newfound weakness, didn’t want Ace to die after all. And when Sabo brought that up after their first meal, Ace worried about it as well. He had gotten up and to breakfast without too much trouble but he knew their home, he walked it every day, it stayed the same, sp how would he survive in a place that was constantly changing?

The two elder brother’s decided not to chance it that day, in fact they didn’t dare enter the forest again for another few weeks, choosing instead to devote their time into training Ace in his other senses, hoping they would increase in sensitivity and make-up for Ace’s lack of sight.

Those few weeks saw more visits to town and the Grey Terminal, Sabo holding Ace’s arm gently to steer him if he ever needed to, and for that first week it was often needed. The training progress was slow going and Ace was getting frustrated, he was perfectly fine in the house but once he left, the world became an unknown, and it was terrifying.

The ray of light, so to speak, in Ace’s dark world came in the surprising form of his grandfather, Monkey D. Garp. The marine visited maybe once a month and this visit came with revealing that Ace was now blind, a worrying thing to tell your strict marine grandfather. Ace was afraid Garp would call him less than a man, a weakness, unworthy. The man didn’t. He shed a tear but told his grandson that they would overcome this minor inconvenience to the youth becoming a marine!

Garp stayed with them for a full week, giving Ace all his attention and helping the boy master using his ears, and other senses to determine where things were placed or where people were walking. And Ace succeeded. When testing himself in toen, he was able to walk and move about like he could actually see, dodging people and looking at them in the face when they deemed to talk to him.

It was amazing; Ace could pretend he wasn’t broken, if not for his hazy eyes. Someone always figured out he was blind because of his eyes. Which is why he rearranged his hair and his bangs to where the his bangs hung in front of his eyes, now no one could tell that Ace was far from normal.

Even with his newfound ability to walk amongst others, his brothers were positive Ace was going to give up on his dream of piracy, or even sailing in general. That resulted in an epic fight between the brothers. Ace was never going to give up his plan for freedom, but Sabo and Luffy just wanted their brother to be safe, and piracy was by no means safe.

The fight among them lasted almost a week and a half but eventually Luffy and Sabo gave in and conceded that Ace couldn’t be restricted his freedom, didn’t mean that Sabo had to like the other’s decision.

Fast forward 7 years, a lot of drama, and more issues with Ace’s handicap; Ace is finally ready to set out on his quest for freedom. He hugged his brother, and said his good-byes to the townsfolk and the band of mountain bandits, and hopped into his small ship and waved as he set off. The only things he took with him were the sack Sabo had bought him a few years back stuffed to the brim with food and necessities, the crazy orange hat Luffy got him as a parting gift, a few pairs of shorts, his loved boots, and a single yellow, currently unbuttoned, shirt.

The first month was distressing for Ace. He could do most of the sailing by himself, feeling for the direction of the wind on his skin, and determining the nautical direction he was sailing by feeling along his compass, but Ace was still not used to sudden appearances; he almost fell overboard when a seagull landed on his sail arms, freaked him out something fierce. So when Ace reached the first island, with a large marine base, by the name of Shells Town, Ace’s first bit of business was to find a first mate to help him sail and to keep him calm.

It was rather difficult finding someone on the marine island who would be willing to sail under a pirate flag, but he found one. And sailing became much easier after that, especially with the Mera Mera no Mi he stole from Shells Town’s marine base. The fire freed Ace. For the first time in over seven years Ace could **see** , by becoming fire and spreading it around his body he was able to obtain impressions of the area around him in his mind. Not to mention that fighting got a bit easier as the fire lead him to his enemies.

His first mate and the ragtag crew he collected were all very protective of him, despite the added protection of the Mera Mera no Mi. They were also the only ones Ace told of his blindness, he kept his weakness to himself otherwise, keeping up with his childhood habit of covering his eyes with his bangs.

They sailed together for a year, Ace becoming known throughout the seas as Fire Fist Ace, his crew, the Spade Pirates, becoming well known for their protectiveness of their captain. They were happy, sailing as they were, their beloved captain leading them, and being more free than they ever were before they were recruited by the blind fighter and his overly protective first mate.

Of course this all did have to come to an end, fate had a way of not allowing Ace his happiness to last; first with his declination of becoming a Shichibukai when asked by the government, and second by his decision to hunt down his father's old rival, Whitebeard. Which then lead to a horrible fight with Jinbe, a fishman Shichibukai. The fight lasted almost five days both fighters giving their all, resulting in neither of the two fighters being able to move after, which in turn declared the match a draw.

And somehow during the fight, the Shichibukai had discovered Ace’s weakness,, his inability to see. It was the third day of their fight, if Ace remembered correctly, when his fire faltered out for a moment and Ace wasn’t completely able to dodge the fishman’s next attack. Jinbe had powerful deduction skills even in the midst of fights, so discovering Ace’s blindness wasn’t such a huge leap to make.

Ace respected that the fishman did not hold back at all, even after he found out Ace's secret. Ace didn't even have to ask the Shichibukai to not reveal his so called weakness; Jinbe merely told him that he wouldn't impart any knowledge about Ace to anyone, after the fight.

Of course not a few days later, Whitebeard came upon Ace and his crew, curious about the upcoming captain who went toe to toe with their favorite Shichibukai. Without even thinking about it Ace separated himself from his crew, demanding they get away while he holds off Whitebeard, a laughable statement if Whitebeard’s loud guffaw was anything to go by. The fight wasn't that long, and of course the protective Spade Pirates refused to let their beloved captain be taken by himself, who knows what the man would do to the blind captain.

That's where this story truly starts; with a bandaged up Ace, in a small room on the large ship, the Moby Dick, slowly coming to consciousness, a strange man with a red pompadour sitting in the chair next to his bed.

"Wha?" Ace spoke out warily, his fire flaring around him lightly letting him know that he wasn't in seastone cuffs. Which was odd considering he was a prisoner, right? The crew obviously knew he was a devil’s fruit user, he used his abilities on Whitebeard after all, so wht wasn’t he cuffed?

"Hey! Finally woke up, did ya?" The voice was deep and Ace swung his head around to stare blankly at the person it came from, hopefully…He didn't know but he didn't want his enemy's crew to discover his lack of eyesight, they would take advantage of him and that weakness for sure.

"Who the hell are you? Where am I? What did you do to my crew? Why am I not shackled?" Ace fired one question after another, his fire flaring around his head and the room, giving Ace a decent layout of the place, so when he escaped he would know where the damn door was, rather important information to know.

"Woah buddy; calm down, one question at a time." The jovial man laughed quietly moving to uncross his arms and set them on his legs, preparing himself to answer the younger's questions. "My name is Thatch, I'm the fourth commander of the Whitebeard Pirates. You are in one of the private rooms of the Moby Dick, Pop's ship. Your crew is fine, but on another ship cause they kept trying to break you out. And you aren't shackled cause there is no reason to restrain our newest brother, is there?" The man, Thatch, smiled at Ace, the fire allowing him to "see" that with light flickers towards the man, not threatening but exploratory. His response shocked the younger, such was showing in his fire's dance around his head, flicking to the ceiling and pulsing.

"Interesting ability you got there; never met a logia type who could do that." Ace didn't respond to that, his fire curling around him like a cat, protecting it's master from the unknown. The fire user was having problems comprehending exactly what Thatch had just told him. Newest brother? What kind of utter bullshit was that?

"What the fuck do you mean, newest brother?" Ace's voice was quiet, as threatening as he could make it, but the jovial man seemed to ignore his tone and just answered the spoken question, his cheer never leaving his voice.

"Pops took a liking to ya, said you would be a great son." Thatch's smile widened, not at all expecting Ace's next action.

The blind male reacted harshly to the sentence. Jumping out of the bed with surprising agility for someone so recently injured; his body flying towards Thatch's. Ace's hands wrapped around the elder's neck, his hands wrapped tightly but not squeezing the air out quite yet, his body weighing down on the man as Ace straddled his torso.

"I. Have. No. Father." Ace spat out, his brow furrowing and his fingers tightening their grip. Thatch coughed, the air leaving his lungs now and he swung his leg around to kick Ace in the ribs but Ace's fire reacted, pinning the offending leg to the wooden floor, burning the appendage as it did so. Thatch let out a startled yell in response, the burn shocking him like nothing ever had. And Ace was more than content to choke the life out of this man and then burn his body to ash.

But to Ace's complete surprise the door swung open with a bang, and a tall man with a strange blonde haircut stood there, his hand on the door, his breathing heavy as he looked at the scene he came upon with bright blue eyes. Ace's head snapped up and his black hair that almost always hung in his eyes flew out, exposing the pale irises, causing the teen to briefly panic and lower his head to once more cover his eyes before he instinctively jumped back, not knowing who or what this threat was.

As the newcomer leant down to help his comrade stand, Ace's fire proceeded to make a barrier around him, caressing him and rubbing up against his cheek and neck. Ace kept backing up until his back hit a wall and then he compressed himself, thrusting his shoulders forward and retracting his neck, his hands coming up to the ready position on either side of his body, prepared to light either of these two on fire, if the need arose.

"You alright there, Thatch, yoi?" the new man spoke, his deep voice sending a shudder right down Ace's spine, tickling his eardrums in a way they never had before, instantly sparking the teen’s curiosity.

"Yeah, Marco. Just fine, just said something he didn't like is all." Thatch laughed out. Accepting the hand the newcomer held out for him, Thatch hobbled to an upright position, not putting any pressure on the leg Ace burnt cause dammit that hurt! The kid could deal some serious damage with those abilities.

Ace's face faltered for a moment, shocked that Thatch wasn't angry at Ace for attacking him like that. It wasn't normal for someone to react like that was it? Was this guy all there in his head? Most people Ace burned normally tried to attack him afterward.

"Well he moves surprisingly well if he was able to catch you off guard, especially when he’s injured, yoi. Maybe you should go topside and brush this all off, maybe get a few nurses to check out your leg? I'll watch Fire Fist, yoi." The blonde spoke, his voice lowering to speak to Thatch, his eyes never leaving the muscled black-haired teen huddled up against the wall, a wall of flame separating them thinly.

"Yeah! Great idea, Marco!" Thatch was all smiles again at the thought of those sexy nurses, even though he cursed more than a few times as he hobbled his way out the door. I mean dammit that fire was hot, and fuck did the burn hurt!

Ace and the man with the shudder-inducing voice, Marco, were the only two left in the small space and the silence was almost overwhelming to the fire wielder. Of course the silence had to be broken at some point. And it had to be the Whitebeard pirate who did it, slamming the door shut suddenly. Scared Ace almost to death and his fire reacted accordingly, lashing out at Marco and protecting it's master, as it has always done.

Marco not moving away from the flames shocked Ace, who wouldn't move if fire was coming at you? Ace was positive this guy could see, he had never met another blind person, let alone a pirate, so he couldn’t be blind. Of course the flames that reached out from the man to meet Ace's own shocked the breath right out of him. These flames weren’t hot, and seemed affectionate, almost loving as they brushed against Ace's more volatile flames.

Ace's own flames' reaction shocked him even more, calming instantly and almost curling around the softer flames trying to get as close as they possibly could. This…no one else could have the Mera Mera no Mi…why did this guy have the ability to control these odd flames?

"Wha-why?" Ace questioned, his voice faltering an hesitant, his fire disconnecting from the stranger's and retreating to it's master, knowing the teen needed comfort more than the fire craved the other flames. The man just chuckles, his voice vibrating it’s way down Ace’s ears and making the teen squirm.

"No worries, Fire Fist, I ate a different fruit. This is just a well-liked side effect, yoi." The man had a really nice voice and every time he heard it he melted a little inside, so Ace needed to be careful around him. The warm voice and delicious vibrations could all be a trick to lull him into a false sense of security so the man could take the teen out himself.

"How did-Why am I here?! Why are you keeping me here?!" Ace was scared. For the first time in a long time, Ace was scared of a person, afraid of this man and his soothing voice and comforting fire, afraid of the kindness he has received so far, what do these people want from him?! What purpose could this possibly serve?!!

"Stop worrying so much about everything, yoi." The man sighed, rubbing his hand through his wisps of hair, looking at Ace kindly, his fire retracting into his body. "We aren't going to hurt you. You are safe here."

"But why?!" Ace yelled frantically, his head raising, hair fluttering around his head with the fire's heat. "Why are you doing this? I'm your enemy!" Ace screamed, his fire flaring and pushing his bands up, revealing his unusual eyes to the other man. But Ace didn't realize he did any such thing, trapped in his mind as he was, until he heard a sharp intake of air from the direction of the man with the soft flames.

Ace’s head snapped up, his fire lowering as he did so, his face contorting in a classic definition of horror. His mouth was frowning yet slightly open, taking in air at an exponential rate, his brow furrowed, and his hazy eyes squinted.

Ace was well and truly freaked now. This man, his enemy, no doubt saw his eyes. He, he knew Ace's weakness, he would tell the crew! It would spread! Everyone would know! Everyone would know he was broken! That he was led than a man! Less than a person!

Ace's inner freak out cause him to pay little attention to the happenings of the room and the next thing he knew, a firm chest was pressing him to the wall, a warm soft hand cupping his cheek gently. Ace took in a sharp breath and froze as the hand moved to tilt his head up, Ace’s fire pulsing out now to caress at the man’s skin, was he ever buff.

Ace didn't stop the man’s movement in anyway, clenching his mouth shut as the hand shifted his head to where he was looking up at the man, eye to eye. The foreign hand on his face then proceeded to brush away his black shaggy bangs that were still covering his filmed over eyes. Ace’s response was to shut his eyes tightly, not wanting to give this guy any confirmation of his obvious suspicions of Ace’s handicap.

"Open your eyes, yoi." Stupid commanding voice, stupid adorable speech tick, Ace cursed as he clenched his eyes closed for a brief moment, before he gave up and slid his eyelids open. Allowing the taller pushy man to see his ugly filmy eyes, the proof he had a weakness that pitted him lower than the average man.

"You-" Marco halted for a moment as Ace tensed his body, bringing his fire around to circle the elder’s neck in warning. Marco ignored the threat and continued on with his statement.

"You are an impressive pirate, yoi. You have a high bounty, you were invited to the Shichibukai, you have a loyal crew, and you are a powerful fighter to boot." Marco’s voice didn’t change in pitch, didn’t falter in anyway, didn’t give Ace the clue he was searching for that would claim this man a liar. Why was the elder complimenting him like this? Ace’s bottom lip trembled lightly at his own thoughts, his fire brushing his cheek in comfort, but still Marco continued on.

“All this, and you are blind.”

**\--**

TBC

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So? What do y'all think? I rather like it~ this is sort of a teaser~ depending on how it's received I'll post the rest of the story~ I am gonna write more for it cause Setsu is a dear and wants to read more ^_^  
> So some quick notes I know someone is going to ask:  
> why is the fire life-like?  
> Well first off, I really like the thought of Logia abilities being alive, like a protective guardian, and secondly Ace is blind and to compensate for that his fire becomes "alive"  
> He can see with his fire?  
> I sort of based this off of Toph from Avatar: The Last Airbender, she can "see" with her earthbending so why can't Ace "see" with his fire?  
> Any other questions just ask ^_^ I promise I will answer them XD


	2. So that's what happens

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which there is some buffer filler~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lemme answer a sort of question I got from 6Lisa9 on FanFiction, you said But I'm not really sure you can explain seeing through fire. And I should have explained it in more detail. To me, Ace is made of the fire, but the fire is also a separate entity. It is like a man and a pet, only they can communicate instantly. Imagine it being like telepathy, he sees because the fire is separate but also him.  
> That make any sense? Cause I sort of confused myself >.>  
> Anyway~ this is once again dedicated to my dear Setsuyume cause she is still a sweety~ also to AuraWhiteFox for your wonderful review~ ARIGATOUGOZAIMASU!!!  
> Thank you everyone for your kind words~ really helped me decide to continue this story ^_^

**SET SAIL!**

“How?” Ace stuttered out, his fire flickering and wrapping tighter to his body as he tried to comprehend how this man could guess his secret from just seeing his eyes. Not one person had been able to guess, blind people weren’t common after all, most of them died within a few years of birth.

“I’ve seen eyes like yours before. Filmed over and hazy; were you born blind, yoi?” his voice was soft as soothing, his thumb still caressing Ace’s temple.

Ace leaned into the hand a bit, a soft sigh escaping his mouth, this was comforting. This was what he has needed since he left Luffy at Mount Colubo, someone to show him some open affection. Don’t get him wrong, his crew was very caring, they just sort of treated Ace like he was fragile; most likely because of his weakness, but regardless. This caring touch from a man with such soothing fire was the most peaceful thing he had ever experienced.

But he wasn’t here for peace. He was here for Whitebeard’s head. He was here to prove himself better than he no good father. It wasn’t time for him to relax and let his guard down, it wasn’t time for him to accept this man. No, it was time for him to put away this weak Ace he was showing, time for him to cage the vulnerable Ace of his childhood and bring out the more recent Captain Fire Fist Ace; time to show this, this fire phony, exactly who is the boss and in control.

Ace squared his shoulders, his fire reacting and flaring dangerously around him and he slapped the soothing hand away. Growling at the blonde he slipped away from the wall and more towards the inner part of the room, trying to show himself as intimidating. Not something easily achieved when the opponent is taller, broader, more experienced, and generally more of a threat.

“Well now you know. Pretty sure you are now going to tell your captain,” Ace spit the word out like it was poison, “that the pirate you picked up is a cripple.” Ace stared at the fake fire guy with as much defiance as he could muster. Of course the stupid man wasn’t intimidated at all and instead laughed out loud, moving away from the wall and towards the prickly youth.

“I’m not going to tell anyone, yoi.” Marco spoke blandly, like he was stating the weather, moving slowly to once again close the space between them. “You have kept this obstacle a secret for a reason. Who am I to share said secret, yoi?” The man smiled lazily, and Ace’s fire responded by fluttering around like a schoolgirl, even his arms turned into flames for a brief second. His fire clearly liked something about this man. Most likely the soothing not fire that he seemed to possess. It was lovely, but how dare he seduce his powerful, destructive fire with his tricky peaceful fire!!

“Then why did you even say anything to me! You could have just kept it to yourself and use the information when you needed it!! Why tell me you know, why say all those-those nice things about me?! What purpose does it serve?!” Ace was so confused. This man doesn’t act like other pirates, he doesn’t act in the way Ace expects him to. Ace had so many questions his head started to spin. However Marco’s deep voice pulled him out of his head before he fell asleep from the strain to his brain.

“Because that’s not the kind of man I am, yoi.” His voice was serious now, completely no nonsense, and it sent a shiver right down Ace’s spine. If Ace could see he would swear to any god that existed that Marco was drop dead sexy. His voice was causing such reaction in his body, why not figure his body would match his sexy as all get out voice.

“You-your, I don’t-I just don’t get it.” Ace sighed, his voice coming out defeated and his shoulders slumping, almost as if in defeat. For the first time since Ace woke up, his fire wasn’t fluttering around him. It retreated back into Ace, and now he was back to being blind, his fire not transmitting him any pictures.

“We want you to join our crew, yoi. We want you to be our brother; Pops wants you to be his son, yoi.” Marco took a step closer to Ace with every word, getting more into Ace’s space as he goes. Of course the last statement set Ace off again, his fire flaring all around his body, flicker and popping like a grease fire.

“I will never have a father!” Ace yelled, his fire heating and expanding, scorching the ground and leaving dark marks on the walls, ceiling, and floors. For a moment he looked like he was a demon, his black hair whipping around his head, his glazed eyes glowing with the light from the fires. He was such a beautiful sight, Marco had a problem ripping his eyes away and actually stop Ace from destroying the room.

Marco’s response was to release some of his own flames, the light blue fires caressing the edges of Ace’s own. His hair flickered into flames at the tips as he spent excess energy into calling his flames without calling all of his abilities into play. However Marco got a pleasant surprise when the flames connected and an almost euphoric look overtook Ace’s anger.

The destructive flames faltered but instead of retracting into Ace’s body once more, they extended, chasing Marco’s soothing flames as the elder pulled his own flames back in. Ace actually let out a bit of a whine as Marco’s flames completely disappeared, the younger even moving forward towards the blonde, hoping to feel that flames intricately combined with his one once more.

Marco coughed lightly to get Ace back into his own mind. It worked, Marco just didn’t expect Ace to flush so beautifully at being caught out of his mind. Ace moved his head to side, his flush darkening as he realized what he was trying to do.

Marco didn’t mention anything about what just happened and instead focused more on trying to get this cute, strong, prickly, young man to open up to him. He was going to be nakama; Marco wanted to get to know this man. He was already so interesting, pirating on the open sea, having such protective crewmates, his strange fire, and being blind on top of it all. He was outstanding.

“Your fire reacts to your emotions, yoi.” Marco stated, ignoring the part of him that wanted to tease the younger for his blush. Ace faced him once more, his face a lighter shade, but still flushed, obviously he didn’t expect such a statement.

“Ye-yeah, it does.” Ace responded, gazing at Marco with confidence despite the obvious stutter in his words.

“And you seem to move about like you know where you are going, like you can see, yoi. I have trouble believing that you are truly blind, yoi.” Marco smirked as he brushed his hand down Ace’s arm, hesitating when the man’s fire wrapped around his appendage.

“I-I am blind. I am in complete darkness. My fire-the reason I have it around me so much is because I see impressions, almost fleeting glances with it. It’s how I move so well in a place I have never been in.” Ace explained, while trying to pull his fire away from Marco’s body without showing that he was having problems doing so. His flame really liked this guy…stupid fire.

“Amazing, yoi. I have never met a logia type that can do something like that, yoi.” Marco spoke, in a voice with almost reverence, as he removed his hand from Ace’s wrist, detaching the eager flames from his person; as Marco could clearly see the teen’s trouble with doing so himself.

“Maybe because you’ve never met a logia missing their eyesight?” Ace responded swiftly, his tongue realizing it could indeed scathe at this man. Also, the fact that dammit Marco realized he couldn’t detach his flames from Marco. Ace pouted a bit at that and Marco laughed. Of course, Ace had no idea if he was laughing at what Ace said or the expression Ace was making.

“True, yoi. To think the fruit would adapt to your blindness is rather remarkable. Just as you are, yoi.” Marco was openly flattering Ace, feeling like that was the way to get the teen to respond as honestly as he has been so far. Of course the flush on his cheeks was a bonus, the teen was going to cause him some major problems in self-control in the future, but for now, Marco was in control.

There was a period of silence after that. Ace a bit too embarrassed to say anything and Marco enjoying the view a bit too much to ruin the silence. Of course it wasn’t truly silent as Ace’s fire was still flitting around, popping and crackling every now and then as it carefully coated almost the entire area with a soft flame.

The silence was then ruined by Ace, asking the question that had been on his mind since talking to the jovial man he had almost killed.

“Why do you call your captain pops?” his voice wasn’t completely hostile this time, holding a substantial amount of curiosity. Ace’s face at that moment will always be stuck with Marco; his filmed eyes staring blankly at Marco, and his shaggy black hair framing his pale face and adorable freckles gorgeously. The teen wasn’t in a guarded position either. His shoulders were relaxed and the glorious set of abs weren’t as tense as they had been, in an obvious attempt at being protected. The fire wielder was simply too beautiful with that look of curiosity.

“Because he calls us his sons, yoi.” Marco responded softly, as if his statement was the most profound in the world, and really, to Marco and the rest of the Whitebeard pirates, it was.

Ace opened his mouth to respond to the strange answer but snapped it shut when he felt his fire waver and fade. This wasn’t panicking as much as it was a sign; his fire going out meant Ace was about to hit the floor in a dead sleep. Well he didn’t want to talk to this strange man with his sexy voice and addicting fire anyway.

Marco’s gaze changed from his normal half-lidded sleepy look to an alert worried one as Ace started to sway and falter. It was a confusing sight to say the least. Was the teen faking to make Marco let his guard down to escape? No, Ace didn’t seem like the kind of guy to do something so underhanded. Doesn’t mean Marco expected what happened next at all.

Ace’s body seemed to just deflate and started falling towards Marco, the teen’s fire nowhere to be seen as he plummeted to the floor. Luckily Marco had trained instincts and caught the well-muscled, half naked teen, before he hit the ground hard.

Marco was about to open his mouth to ask Ace what the hell, when his unspoken question was answered by a snore leaving those luscious red lips.

Did the teen just fall asleep in the middle of a conversation?

**TBC**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There ya go folks~ I know it is mostly filler but trust me!! It’s very much needed as a buffer for the next chapter~  
> I hope I answered any questions and if not (or if I gave you more) feel free to ask!!  
> Also, don’t expect me to update this fast all the time, I do have work and school after all, BUT do expect Chapter 3 tomorrow~ it’s my day off and I will be spending it wisely~!!!!! Love you ALL


	3. Who ARE you people?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meeting the crew...kind of....

**Hey~ it’s been a wonderful day off~ got my nails did, slept in, and am nao watching Dinsey and writing cause MULTITASKING!!!**

**Sorry about the short chapter previously~ It was needed yet hard to write filler >.< This was also difficult because instead of planning out this chap I was busy fantasizing about the angst and smut chapters XD they are coming!! Be warned!!**

**This chapter is once again dedicated to** _Setsuyume_ **cause she’s still a dear and is technically my beta XD also to** _InspiringLight_ **for the lovely review, and the person I am going to blame for the BlindGypsyAce fic that is now stuck in my head. All your fault.**

**Also a special thanks to** _6Lisa9_ **for her kind words~**

**SET SAIL!**

Marco was a bit at a loss of what to do. He never had to deal with a person who randomly falls asleep. Was it an illness? Was Ace sick on top of being unable to see with his eyes? That couldn’t be good for him at all could it?

Marco lowered Ace’s body to the floor, taking care not to hurt the teen as he did so. It was odd, touching the fire wielder and not feeling the constant heat that seemed to be a perpetual feeling in the room. Was the fire not active while Ace was asleep? That was quite dangerous for anyone daring enough to attack the “captain” while he was sleeping.

What an odd person Ace was in the first place. Having fire constantly around him, being so unrelenting towards him or Thatch, hating that pops wanted Ace as a son. What has the teen been through to seem so thoroughly pissed at the idea of a father?

Marco looked down at the sleeper in his lap and hid a small smirk with his hand. This kid was just adorable, especially with all those freckles. Of course he was also quite sexy, showing of those deliciously toned abs and pectorals, and his muscular legs. He definitely wasn’t hard to look at; quite the piece of eye candy.

Of course with Marco being distracted by the wonderful view that is Ace, he didn’t quite notice when the young man who held his attention started to stir. Luckily he was able to snap out of staring when Ace let out a small groan and the teen’s fire flared out. For some reason it didn’t feel hot like it did earlier. Marco may not be able to be burned by the fire but he did feel the heat. How strange.

However the almost exploratory movements of the fire were not long lived, the heat returned almost as soon as Ace’s eyes snapped open and he shot up from Marco’s lap. His fire was now wrapping tightly around that toned body while simultaneously reaching out and gently touching Marco’s person.

“Wha-” Ace spoke with confusion, the flames pulsing out again, covering the full room, but curiously not burning anything, Marco noticed a bit out of it. After all the combination of Ace and fire should be banned, he simply looked too sensual and sinful.

“Relax, yoi. You fell asleep in the middle of our conversation. You’ve only been asleep for a few minutes at the most, yoi.” Marco spoke blandly, taking care to not look too interested in Ace’s ability to fall asleep in a flash.

Of course Ace had to flush brightly at the man’s statement. Damn the teen for being so attractive. He must have some damn good genes to look so great, even when freshly roused from sleep.

“A-ah, yeah, that happens. Have something called narcolepsy? Least that’s what the doc Gramps took me told us.” Ace faced up, if he could see he would likely be staring at the ceiling.

That explained a lot. But damn what a stack of cards against the young man, blind and narcoleptic? What a combination. On the other hand he was gifted with a devil’s fruit and he had quite the skill at hand-to-hand combat. It was fascinating.

Ace of course took the time while Marco was musing to himself to send his fire in a more complete circle around the room. As he was doing that he noticed his hands weren’t on something that felt like hard wood, in fact it felt almost like flesh.

And in that moment Ace’s face was never hotter, realizing Marco must have caught him and then laid his head in the elder’s lap. How utterly embarrassing. Ace shouldn’t be this oblivious around this man, he was an enemy after all.

“Was there a reason why you were in this room in the first place?” Ace spoke, trying to nonchalantly move away from the man with the soft fire, hoping said man didn’t notice Ace pulling away. Of course Marco was incredible observant and did indeed notice and smirked, not bothering to hide it with his hand this time. Also Ace trying to redirect him was adorable indeed.

“Yes there was. Pops wanted me to bring you topside, something about you interacting with your brothers and crew, yoi.” Marco’s smirk stayed firmly on his face even when Ace’s head whipped around and to face him. The teen couldn’t glare at him effectively while being blind, but his facial expressions sure got the feeling across. How cute, trying to intimidate Marco.

“They aren’t my brothers. Just like your captain will never be my father.” Ace spat out venomously, the previously calm fire flaring and heating. Marco was pretty sure if the fire could affect him he would have one of the worst burns ever, much like Thatch had when Marco kicked him out of the room.

“That’s fine for now, Ace. But one of these days you are going to choose us as your crew and you’ll call him pops as well, yoi.” Marco’s voice was no nonsense and Ace admired the amount of confidence in the man’s voice. But what did he know? He only knew Ace for a few minutes after all. Ace would never be a part of this crew.

“Keeping thinking that, Marco.” Ace sneered; speaking the man’s name almost like it was an insult instead of an actual name. Well back to Ace being unresponsive and angry, so much for lulling him into a nice mood for meeting all the characters on deck. Well let’s get this part over with so Marco can get back to doing his work around deck.

“Whatever. Come on, kid. Time to go meet the family, whether you want to or not, yoi.” Marco spoke lazily, raising himself off the floor and hoisting Ace along with him. Careful not to pull too hard and ram him into the hard wall, that wouldn’t get him into Ace’s good graces. Not at all.

“I’m not a kid.” Ace mumbled as he allowed himself to be pulled off the floor by the surprisingly more muscular man. Damn how much did this guy work out? He was built. Marco just laughed at Ace’s grumbling.

“Of course, come on, yoi.” Marco replied, tugging at Ace’s hand, forgetting that even though the teen was blind, he could see with his fire; which was currently flaring tightly around Ace’s person, not reaching any further than just a few inches from his skin.

The walk was silent of all chatter but there were plenty of sounds with the combination of footsteps, Ace’s crackling fire, and the other sounds of the ocean and the ship rocking. It was a pretty peaceful walk and Marco had to restrain himself from letting his own fire out to play, because while Marco enjoys seeing Ace react to said fire, he doesn’t want his brother’s to see the youth like that at all. Nope, not one bit of it.

Ace on the other hand was focused on mapping out the walk with his fire, knowing he can remember it and knowing it’ll be useful to know the way out of his “prison” in case he wants to attack Whitebeard or if he needs to escape. Oh, and how freaking warm Marco’s hand was in his own. Didn’t the guy realize he never let go? Cause Ace sure did and damn is his face feeling hot, stupid fake fire man, with his stupid sexy hands, making Ace flush, how dare he?

Seems the man did know what he was doing because as soon as they reached the stairs that lead to the door for the deck he let go of Ace’s hand. Fucker. Knows he is good-looking and is taking advantage of it. Mother of fuck, what an asshole.

Of course before the two could even start the up stair climb, the door at the top slams open and a familiar presence is felt. That fucking joyful guy, the one Ace’s fire burned. Well this will be interesting, to say the least.

“Aha! Marco, perfect! Pops wants to see you! And Izou wants to meet the new kid!” His voice was as jovial as the last time Ace heard it and dammit the teen could tell the man was grinning, made him want to grin as well. These people suck.

“I’m not a kid, dammit! And I have a name!” Ace yelled, his voice showing that he was well and truly ticked, but the two elders just laughed. Damn them for not being intimidated.

“Haha. That may be true, kid.” Thatch emphasized the kid comment with a playful look at Ace, which he didn’t catch because duh, blind. “But you never told me what it was.” Ah well, that would explain quite a bit. Ace could have sworn the man knew his name though, I mean his entire crew was shouting it while he was fighting Whitebeard. Well if you could call him getting beat horribly an actual fight.

“My name is on my wanted poster. How can you know that my nickname is Fire Fist and not know that my actual name is Ace?” Ace responded scathingly, facing the man with a dead cow face, his eyes once again covered by his bangs. Can’t let anyone else find out about his secret could he?

“Well, uh, that it-” the man, Thatch if Ace remembered right, stuttered out, but Ace didn’t give him a chance to try and recover, instead launching into another scalding remark.

“It’s even tattooed on my shoulder.” Ace lifted his left sleeve to show off the pride of his body; his salute to his dear treasured brother. Of course Marco and Thatch whipped their heads to look at said tattoo and had two different reactions. Marco a gasp like sound of surprise, and Thatch in an uproarious laughter. Marco’s was obvious, he was thinking that Ace was blind so why the hell did he trust someone to tattoo his skin? And Thatch’s was just as obvious to Ace cause it was a common response, thinking that the tattoo guy misspelled his name.

“Before you ask no it isn’t misspelled; I had it made this way for a good reason. And no, I am not going to tell you why that is.” Ace spoke curtly, his face changing from being expressive to being stony, obviously there was a story there and Marco was keen to attempt and drag it out of the fire user. But not here, and certainly not with anyone around, so Marco did what he does best, deflected the conversation.

“Well then. Since pops needs to see me why don’t you introduce Ace to everyone, Thatch, yoi?” sexy voice say what now? Walking around a strange deck, with the creepily happy guy, and being introduced to people who were his enemy? No thanks.

But of course before Ace could say no to such a ridiculous idea, the strange guy said no problems and dragged Ace up the flight of stair and onto the deck, completely disregarding the fire surrounding Ace. Obviously the man didn’t seem to remember the last time Ace disagreed with his statement. A little…renewal of that lesson seemed like a great idea to the teen.

But before he could amp up the flames and burn the asshole, Ace was assaulted by voices and noise, and so much _movement_ , that he froze completely. His body going taut and his fire spread, creating an almost unbearable heat about a foot out of his body, like a makeshift shield. Said heat made Thatch release the youngster and back up at the same time, looking at Ace like he had three heads instead of one.

Well Thatch didn’t know Ace was blind, so he wouldn’t know that a sudden assault of the senses could cripple him even more than he already was. Ace just needed a few minutes. Of which it seemed he was granted as the deck seemed to fall completely silent at Ace’s appearance. Most likely due to the fire more than anything, it was, after all, a wooden ship. Most pirated do freak out at the sight of fire when they are out on the open sea.

Hmph. Amateurs. Like Ace couldn’t control where his flames and what they lit on fire. If not, many people would be dead or at least fatally burned. How else was Ace supposed to know what people looked like without letting his fire touch them?

While Ace was off in Lala Land, the rest of the Whitebeards got back to business, except one in particular.

A certain feminine man made his way over to the duo. His dark hair done up in a perfect geisha do, his face pale highlighted by the bright red lipstick on his lips. His purple kimono flowed with every step, showing off his pair of pistols every time the light fabric fluttered out from his well-toned body; the even clicks coming from his geta were quite loud on the still mostly silent deck. The sound easily stirred Ace from his internal mutterings.

“Well, well, Thatch. Who on earth is this rather fine-looking man you have here?” his voice was light and sweet, and if Ace could see he would be convinced that said man was a woman. But Ace could feel that the light-voiced man was in fact a male. Before Thatch could answer though, Ace took an initiative, for the first time since he has been on this ship.

Ace stepped closer to the man, his fire reaching out to encircle the other’s feet, being careful not to actually touch the man in case Ace freaked out again and accidently burned the man. Better be careful for now until he could get another shot at Whitebeard.

“My name is Ace, more commonly known as Fire Fist.” Ace introduced himself with as little information as he could get away and offered his hand to the light man. Mostly because if he didn’t the other most likely would when he said his name, and Ace didn’t want to give out any clues to his secret…well one of them anyway.

“A pleasure, Ace. My name is Izou, I am the commander of the 16th division of the Whitebeard pirates.” Izou’s voice was certainly pleasant to the ear, not as delectable as Marco’s but not as abrasive as Thatch’s. What a nice change. The man’s hand was also quite soft, despite the numerous callouses Ace felt.

They sort of just stood there, their hands clasped, Thatch looking between the two like something profound was going to happen, Ace’s fire jumping with minor excitement, slightly touching the colorful kimono. This snapped the other man out of their one-sided staring match, because Ace’s fire wasn’t cool right now, it was not on full blast but it was still hot.

“You burn this kimono and I will throw you overboard. I know you devil users sink like stones, and I will make sure no one saves you.” Well that’s a little harsh.

“Don’t worry. I can control what my fire does and doesn’t burn. Your kimono is safe.” Ace spoke in bored tones, as if he didn’t just admit that he could his control his flame to such an extent as choosing what is burnt and what isn’t.

“Really? Does that mean you could burn someone’s clothes but leave their body unharmed?” Ace was about to reply with an affirmative but Izou ignored that and just kept speaking. “How kinky.” And Ace was flushing again. Should of figured there would be something off about the guy, he was a Whitebeard after all.

“I don’t use my flames that way.” Ace was offended, why on earth would he use his fire in such an embarrassing manor?

“Pity.” Izou drawled, his voice deepening slightly as he leered at the more muscular man standing slightly behind Ace, almost as if the younger were a shield. How odd.

Before Ace or Thatch could respond to the man’s words said man sauntered off, swinging his hips suggestively for his onlookers. Which would only be Thatch, but hell, Izou didn’t know that. Thatch shuddered a bit at the show, and Ace turned to face his “guide” hoping to get this over so he could go back to the room they allotted him and bask in his fire for a while. Being around this many sensations was too much effort.

“I think Izou is trying to get in my pants.” Thatch said, and it completely threw Ace off guard. That was not what the fire wielder was expecting in the least. And it showed on the expression on Ace’s face, considering Thatch’s immediate words.

“Don’t look at me like that. Plenty of men on this ship swing that way, I just don’t know if I could find it in myself to even try it.” The man was in denial. Yep. Ace could tell by his voice, he did want the light-voiced man; the bigger man just didn’t want to say anything. Well Ace wasn’t going to comment on it, he didn’t really care, he wasn’t going to get to know anyone on this ship. And Thatch seemed to get that, as he swung his arm around Ace’s neck, one again disregarding said youth’s flames. He was gonna get terribly burnt one of these days and Ace wouldn’t even bat an eyelash.

Thatch started gesturing to certain people around the deck, saying their names and their divisions but Ace was hardly paying attention. He obviously couldn’t see the people the bigger man was motioning to so why even waste his time?

Instead Ace decided to try his hand at being sneaky and spread his flames as thin as he could and sent them out over the deck, trying to keep them almost invisible so he could map out the deck in his mind’s eye. It was a bit difficult considering he couldn’t even see the fire so how would he know if someone else could? Oh well, it was good practice either way.

Ace was actually enjoying this a bit. Thatch’s deep voice easily covering all the other noise on deck so Ace’s ears didn’t hurt and could actually focus on what he was doing. It was, dare he think it, rather nice. Until of course Ace found a rather grandiose door, tall, thick, and menacing. Where does this go, he wondered to himself.

Ace didn’t have to wonder long, the door slammed open almost as soon as he found it. And out came a ginormous figure he would have recognized the feel of anywhere.

The rage came swiftly and Ace was too clouded by it to notice that beside the figure was the soothing sexy Marco. No all Ace could think about was proving himself better than his asshole of a father, and proving that he was better than the man who helped conceive him.

“My sons! Let us welcome our newest member! Fire Fist Ace! Gurararara!”

**TBC**

**Oh my gosh that took forever. Started it at like 7 and didn’t finish until 2:30 >.< had a lot to write~ My dear Setsu pointed out that I was compensating for the previous short chapter but I’m not~ I just write more when I actually am interested in what I am writing~ filler is uninteresting for me to write XD**

**Now don’t expect me to update every day~ I have two 8 hour shifts this week, 3 full days of school, then I am out of town~ so I prolly won’t get the next chapter up until Thursday at the earliest, even if I do write while I am at work XP**

**I hope y’all enjoy this~ I wrote it for you people~ And again don’t hesitate to ask me questions~ I don’t bite~ I promise~**

**Much love ^3^**


	4. What is this feeling?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some things happen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I started this after work on Sunday, and have been writing it a bit at a time since then (also in class because I am awesome and convince the teachers that I am writing notes and not a FanFic) XD   
> Many thanks to 6Lisa9 because her reviews are fantastic and make me a little happier every time I go reread them XD   
> This chapter is dedicated to Setsuyume as always~ cause she is such a sweetie-pie and is helping me produce such awesomely written chapters~ Also to TrafalgarLawxKikoku for pointing out something I need to clarify XD  
> You told me but no one find it weird that Ace covers his eyes? or that he don't look at them while speaking? And in my mind, Ace always covers his eyes, it shows him with covered eyes in his bounty photo, and people are just used to him having the eyes covered, so nope~ no one finds it weird. And he has very good hearing and add in his fire he can tell where people are so he can face them, they can’t see his eyes so they can’t tell that he isn’t looking at them.   
> Hope I answered your question~!!!

**SET SAIL!**

Ace was furious, and his fire was reacting to it, flaring out and heating them to an immense degree, a degree he never even attempted to reach before; his anger just kept pumping energy into the flames, making them bigger, hotter, and more dangerous. If Ace could see he would be seeing red, but he can’t so instead he feels red. And his body reacts to that rage in an instant.

Ace flung his body speeding along the deck, blurring in between the idling crew members cheering from Whitebeard’s announcement. He brought his fire tight to his skin, flaring only small bubbles of flame out to see where he was going. There were no thoughts in his mind, it was pleasantly blank, his body was running the show, his body was dictating his course, and his body decided that he needed to show Whitebeard that Ace would never be his son.

No one noticed what Ace was doing, well, Marco noticed because when he stepped out on deck Ace was the first thing he was looking for, and Thatch noticed cause, hey, the man had his arm wrapped around the teen’s shoulders, anyone would notice if the person suddenly disappeared. And then there was Whitebeard, who knew what Ace was going to do as soon as he made his announcement. What could you say, Whitebeard enjoyed seeing Ace so hyper.

The rest of the crew didn’t seem to be so laid back when Ace shot up from the main deck to the higher deck where Whitebeard was, lighting his feet on fire to boost himself above the gigantic man’s head. Thinking for a brief moment, he flipped over the giant man’s head and aimed a side swipe kick at said man’s head, hoping to catch him off guard.

Except Whitebeard has been a pirate for many years, he could see an attack like that coming from a mile away, so it wasn’t a surprise at all, and in fact, the old man easily caught Ace’s foot an flung him at the door he just exited.

“Gurarara! Nice try, son. But you will need to try harder than that! Gurarara!!” the man laughed before he made his way off the high deck and toward the mess hall, talking to Jozu about a supply problem, seeing as Marco detached from his pop’s side to go and check on the intriguing youth that just became a deck pancake.

The soothing man knelt down next to the teen just lying on the floor. Said teen was even more stunning like this, lying on his back on the cold deck of the captain’s room, his chest heaving from the insane show of speed and agility, his hair no longer covering the lovely hazy eyes. All in all, he was quite pleasant to look at, and looking quite disheartened.

“I thought you would have learned after your first attempt, yoi.” Marco spoke softly, knowing that Ace was in a particularly violent mood right now. But for once the man is surprised, because instead of lashing out like Marco expected; Ace instead just covered his eyes with one of his muscular arms.

Marco didn’t hear anything that sounded like a sob, so he just raised the arm to look at Ace’s face, which wasn’t tear streaked but certainly set in a scowl. Ace’s fire also reflected his mood by lapping at Marco’s skin, feeling like it was searching for something, something to calm it down, to give it the affection it so clearly needs right now. Obviously Ace’s fire knew more about what Ace wanted than Ace did himself; which is why Marco let his own flames flicker against his skin, rising lightly from his chest, neck, and feet.

When their fires meshed they combined in an almost perfect purple, it was beautiful, the color. Marco wished Ace could see the lovely dance the flames seemed to be so intent on doing; but a gasp from said younger caused Marco’s thoughts to fly from his mind.

Ace’s back arched, his eyes wide as if trying to take in all the sights he possibly could, Marco had no idea what Ace was “seeing” with his flames. The fire **looked** beautiful but how did it feel? What could Ace possibly be feeling to cause him to react so strongly to the joining of the opposite flames?

Ace was practically in euphoria. His flames didn’t get this close to Marco’s before, not so close that his flames melded with the other man’s. Oh god, he’d never felt something as intimate as Marco’s flames caressing his own. The feeling was intense, nothing he had ever thought existed, and nothing he never dreamed could exist. What pleasure, what delight.

Ace actually startled himself by letting out an almost wanton moan. The sound shocked him and Marco since the man’s fire withdrew back into his body almost instantly. Of course, this made Ace cry out at the loss, his flames pulsing and reaching for Marco’s body, hoping to get him to release those intoxicating flames again.

There was no luck though, but Marco did lean his body over Ace’s, drawing himself closer to the younger. Marco was making some sort of noise, but Ace couldn’t really process any of it, he was too busy drowning in the loss of the euphoric feelings of fire melding with fire.

“Ace! Snap out of it, yoi!”

With a sharp smack to the freckled cheek, Marco shocked Ace out of his drowning; more for the sake of his self-control than anything else. If Ace kept moving like that, kept moaning like that, Marco would jump him, the teen was too adorable for his own damn good and damn did Marco just want to be the immoral pirate that he is and take advantage of the teen.

Ace was breathing heavy, his hands trying to grasp something on the floor, something that was solid and connected. What it was, he had no idea, just something to ground him in reality, something to keep him in the conscious world and not in his own realm. Ace had to be very careful with any future interactions he may have with Marco’s soothing fire.

“Th-thanks, Ma-Marco.” Ace responded breathlessly, his voice coming out in between pants of breath. It surprised the teen when instead of backing away the elder instead leant closer, hovering over Ace’s head and upper torso.

Ace didn’t need the man to be on fire for him to feel the heat of the man’s toned body. It was almost as intoxicating as the flames, and the teen’s breathing picked up again, his fire caressing the taller’s face with every movement closer. Oh god, was Marco going to kiss him? Wait, why wasn’t Ace stopping him? Was he really going to let Marco take his first kiss?

Ace only pondered it for a movement. He brought his arms up to wrap around Marco’s neck, caressing the back of the man’s head as they continued to move their faces closer. Breath picking up once more, his cheeks flushing and his fire arched as well.

Marco didn’t know what he was doing, Ace just looked enchanting, purely sinful, lying there and gasping for breath, allowing his fire to frame around his body, making him look almost fantastical. Marco needed to taste those delightfully red lips, did he just say delightful? What the hell?

But Marco wasn’t going to stop the movement, he was a pirate after all, and if Ace was going to let the elder kiss him, then kiss him he would.

Of course fate had a completely different idea for what needed to happen, and the door slammed open when Ace and Marco were only a breath away from connecting their lips. But the slam did shock the apart.

The distraction seemed to cause more distress to Ace than Marco because the teen’s flames grew to fill the room, alternating the heat it produced between somewhat comfortable and holy hell when did we get to the underworld?

“Well it’s fucking hot in here!” the voice was distinct, one Marco knew very well as belonging to one Marshal D. Teach. What an absolute buzz kill.

But what Marco didn’t know was that Ace was panicking for a completely different reason. The man who barged in gave his fire the absolute creeps, something about him just made Ace shut into defense mode.

The previous activities blanked from Ace’s mind and he focused solely on building protection against this sticky dark feeling that the stranger brought with him.

“Dammit, Teach! Don’t you know how to knock, yoi?!” Marco was ticked off at Teach for interrupting what would have been an earth-shattering no doubt, but also grateful because damn Ace was young.

“Hahaha Not once Marco, hahaha!” the man responded and his voice caused Ace to curl in on himself, his fire covering him in a protective shell. There was something wrong with this man; his presence was like a thick slime that slithered over him, making him feel violated. As if the man’s voice was penetrating him in the most vile of ways and Ace had to hold himself back from vomiting.

“Well tell me why you are here and get out, yoi.” Marco’s voice wasn’t harsh as much as it was tight, like he was annoyed that he was interrupted.

“The old man wanted to see you, that’s all.” The man spoke and Ace shivered again, not from pleasure like he does when Marco speaks, but from disgust and horror. This man needed to leave, he needed to leave now or Ace was going to make him.

The man left quickly after he gave his message, and with each step he made Ace felt lighter and lighter. His fire let up the shield and went back to floating around almost lazily, lapping at Marco’s ankles, hoping to entice the man back to his previous position.

“That was Marshal D. Teach, part of the second division, yoi.” Marco spoke, turning around to get Ace out of the captain’s quarters, the sight that he was met with shocked him. Ace was curled in the corner shaking lightly, his hands covering his ears like he was attempting to keep something out. The conclusion Marco jumped to was that he was freaking out about the almost kiss, and immediately felt horrible. He was going to take advantage of a youth who was just thrust into an unusual circumstance; he was an immoral pirate.

“I’m sorry, Ace, yoi. I did not mean to freak you out earlier.” Marco said, keeping his distance from the trembling teen, hoping said youngster would calm himself down without Marco all in his space.

Ace was taking deep breaths, trying to calm the fight part of him, his trembling stopped rather easily as the man who caused the trembles was already gone, the deep breaths persisted for a while, but all he really wanted to do was to go back to his room and sleep.

“It-it wasn’t you, I just-that man surprised me is all.” Ace spoke out, his body tensing as he lifted himself off the ground, stumbling a bit as he did so, forgetting that he was thrown into the door earlier. Marco left out an inaudible sigh of relief at that and then waited for Ace to center himself before he spoke again.

“I can take you back to your room before I go talk to the old man; if you need me to, yoi.” Marco offered, his voice back to his normal lazy tone, his eyes sharpening on Ace as the teen faltered as his fire once again wrapped around his body.

“It’s fine, I can find my way back. I memorized it earlier. Go to your meeting.” Ace hissed out, his head pounding with an oncoming headache, the desire to be alone rising like a tidal wave.

“Alright then, I’ll see you at dinner then, yoi.” Marco answered turning and leaving the large room with only a single glance over his shoulder at the stunning teen.

**Time Skip**

It had been a month since Ace and his crew were captured by the Whitebeard pirates. Ace was still volatile and prone to attempting to assassinate Whitebeard at the strangest of moments, but was slowly talking to the Whitebeard crew instead of punching them in the head at any endeavors to do so. However the ones he talked to the most were Marco and Izou, he saw Thatch from time to time and said hello but he chatted with Marco and Izou like they were friends, well the closest Ace got to friends with enemy pirates.

Izou and Ace’s friendship was an odd one; they talked about many things, conversing deep and long about different subjects, some were taboo like Whitebeard and Thatch, but other than those anything else was free game. Izou didn’t know about Ace’s weakness and Ace never planned on telling him, but it was nice to the teen to be able to just chat with someone.

Marco was another story entirely, the man wasn’t around often due to his duties as first mate, but when he was around he didn’t let Ace far from his sight, preferring to keep the hot-head within reaching distance. Ace was still flustered at times by the man, but for the most part he liked the way Marco treated him. Not like he was fragile or broken, but like he was just a man with hardships unlike many others. It was as refreshing for Ace as it was for him to hang with Izou.

Luckily Ace had no more interactions with that Teach person. He did not want to go through the terror he did at that time. But on the other side he never got as close to kissing Marco as he did at that time either, which could either be seen as positive or negative, depending on the day.

The crew got used to him being around as well. They got used to knowing he was around by the flames spreading on the floor and the heat going up in the area. They were also now used to Ace’s fire always being around him, and no one questioned it when the flames touched them, it didn’t hurt them so they didn’t care much, it was actually kinda cool to a lot of them.

This brings us to the present day. Ace has had his walls torn at least halfway down and he isn’t trying to kill Whitebeard nearly as often as he once was, but today is a day of an attack. And unknown to many, even to Ace himself, this is the last attack the hot-head is ever going to attempt on the elderly captain of the Moby Dick.

**TBC**

Deleted Scene

“What do you mean he almost kissed you?!” Izou’s voice was high and loud and if he and Ace weren’t in the crow’s nest then someone surely would have heard him, but they chose this place for a reason, and that was so that they wouldn’t be heard.

“Well, his face was very close to mine and his fire was just so intoxicating, I was dizzy with the feeling of it.” Ace responded quieter, his face flushing red and his fire coming in between the two talking males, creating a curtain for the teen to hide behind.

“Oh my god, Ace! That’s awesome! How do you feel about Marco? Do you think you would let him kiss you in normal circumstances? You two would be so cute together!” Izou started to squeal, images assaulting his mind and he didn’t want to stop them at all, they were so beautiful together.

Ace just flushed harder at all the questions and turned his head away from the slightly elder man, wanting to keep his embarrassment to himself. But Izou wouldn’t let him do that, reaching through the flames, knowing by now that they weren’t hot, to turn Ace’s face back so Izou could look right at him.

“Hun. This is a good thing for you. You deserve someone like Marco to love you. The man gives his all, and lord knows he will give you anything you ask for if you just turn your adorable freckled face at him.” Izou’s voice was soft, his lips upturned in a slight smile, and his eyes sparkling at the thought of his brother and this prickly teen together in a relationship.

“I-I don’t think of him like that! I just-” Ace cut himself off as his head slumped down onto Izou’s shoulder, his lips parting to let out a few soft snores.

“Ace! Really?! WE WERE JUST GETTING TO SOMETHING GOOD DAMMIT!!!”

**That’s the real end XD just a sample of what sometimes goes on in Izou’s and Ace’s conversations~**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finished!!! Didn’t think I was going to be able to do it, holy crap.   
> This has turned into one of my babies. And I am proud of how much I have written for it, the most I have written for any of my stories and I think that is because of Setsuyume. With my others I never had anyone to chat with as I wrote them so the dedication left me, but she has been awesome and has been on FB messaging with me as I write so I keep going.  
> It’s all do to her y’all are getting these so fast.   
> Just want to give you a quick note tho, I will be taking a short break to write a MarcoAce oneshot or two~ but I will post a new chapter for this within a week~ and if for some reason I don’t feel free to yell at me~  
> Thanks so much everyone!!!


	5. So the okama knows...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> title kinda says it all >.>

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, after 2 long years of fabulous use, my beloved Alienware laptop committed suicide in class on Thursday. Luckily I wasn’t working on anything too important and I hadn’t started this chapter yet, but I did lose my According to You MarcoAce songfic, TT.TT but I didn’t like it all that much anyway -_- my GypsyAce fic is also only in hard copy so nothing too dramatic was lost. I am using my step-dad’s laptop till mine comes back fixed (hopefully)  
> However this is the second time I have had my stories, my babies, taken from me and it made me somewhat unable to write…it didn’t make me cry this time but it was still heart breaking…BUT ANYWAY!!!  
> This is dedicated to Setsuyume (As always XP) and to Imperial Mint in thanks to her review on my oneshot and her kind words that really helped me with this chapter~

**SET SAIL!**

It was such a beautiful day. The sun heated skin, the wind caressed hair lightly, the sea lapped at the moving vessel, and the crew’s voices were nothing but a soft rumble below the crow’s nest. That’s where Ace and Izou are currently hiding themselves, partly due to Izou being on watch duty, partly because Ace wanted to talk and this was their chosen place every time they wanted to do so.

Izou was sitting up against the wooden half-wall that made up the crow’s nest, just watching his black-haired companion. The teen was truly beautiful, even if you just took in his face and disregarded the rest of his body. He was nicely tanned, creamy caramels all over, save for his darker freckles along his nose and cheeks, the colors were really complimented by his dark slightly wavy hair. His face was breathtaking, but it would have been more so if he could see Ace’s eyes, those mysterious eyes that never seemed to show.

In fact, Izou doesn’t remember ever seeing the younger’s eyes, not once. Not on the bounty photo, not around the ship, not during these little talks of theirs, not even when Ace was fighting pops. It was odd. Ace always seemed to be covering his eyes with those blasted bangs of his, covering what would be the perfect face. What a waste.

“Hey Ace?” Izou spoke quietly, just loud enough to catch the teen’s attention. But it was odd. When Ace turned to look at the kimono-clad man, his fire reached out to touch Izou’s ankles, subtly and with no heat, then Ace turned fully towards him, his face still not looking right at Izou’s face, but a bit off to the left. Why did he do that? And why was Ace’s fire always lightly fluttering against the people on the ship? Especially when they were headed towards him? What was Ace hiding?

“What’s up, Izou?” Ace’s voice easily matched his face, but at the same time it was hesitant, like he wasn’t sure what he was doing or where he was looking. What was going on with his younger brother?

“I was just wondering…” his voice trailed off a bit, his eyes narrowing at the teen bathed in his flames, why was Ace always facing away from the people he talked to? He never looked right at them, always a bit off to the side, why did he do that?

Izou didn’t finish his sentence, he just moved his body silently, shuffling to where he was right in front of Ace, looming over the teen’s bended knees, his face a foot from Ace’s. The teen barely reacted, his flames were now roaming the top of Ace’s skin, barely flickering an inch from it, and Izou made sure not to touch them at all as his lifted his hand.

“Izou?” Oh god, the pure innocence in Ace’s voice made Izou feel so bad for this, but damn if his curiosity wasn’t burning a hole in his mind. He needed to do this. It was important; so Izou didn’t say a word as he raised his hand to the front of Ace’s handsome face, just a bit away from the armor-like fire surrounding Ace, and then lifted the too long bangs, swaying slightly with the flames, away from the young fighter’s face.

The sight made Izou gasp and jump away, his back hitting the mast in his shock. There was no way, that had to have been a trick of the sunlight, maybe Izou wasn’t completely healthy, maybe he was sick and dizzy, that could explain the sight. Because it just was not possible that the young hyperactive teen Izou had come to know was blind.

But Ace’s reaction solidified that fact. The teen looked absolutely terrified; his body was tense, curled in on itself, his arms clutching his bent legs, his bangs covering his face once more, and a slight tremble travelling down his well-toned body. Oh god, Izou felt horrible! Ace looks so afraid! What did he do?!

“I’m so sorry, Ace! I was just curious! I didn’t mean to scare you! I just wanted to know what had you so stressed, what you are always hiding from everyone! Why you always look slightly away from people! I am so so sorry! I don’t know how to make this up to you!” Izou raised his voice, kneeling and bowing his body over his legs, his hands right next to Ace’s feet, his head faced down as he spoke his apologies.

Ace didn’t respond at all, at least not with his voice. His breath sped up, sweat pouring from his body as his fire flicked at Izou’s body, and it was that image the teen received that calmed him. Izou didn’t want to embarrass him, he didn’t want to scare him, he didn’t want to make fun of him, the geisha-dressed man just wanted to know what his friend was hiding. Ace took a deep breath before he moved a trembling hand to lay it on Izou’s slighter body, his voice wavering as he spoke to this man, who was more or less his closest friend.

“I-I have been bl-blind since I was ten.” Izou sat yup straight at Ace’s voice, his ears perking at the news. He stared at his friend with wide eyes while he sat against the mast, his ears perked and paying complete attention as the freckled teen spoke.

“I…never really had problems with it. I had good instincts already, I could walk around without running into anything. I…was okay. I set out to sail a year ago…I was 17. It was terrifying. I didn’t deal with it well, I was so afraid of getting lost. Then I found the Mera Mera no Mi. The fire…it helped me so much…it gave me back my vision in a way I never expected.” Ace was speaking so passionately that Izou couldn’t stop himself from placing a hand on the hunched shoulder.

It shocked the teen to be sure, but Izou needed to convey that he was here, that he was listening to a story Ace must not have shared often. And, for a reason Izou couldn’t explain, he was happy. Happy that Ace trusted him with this. It was obviously difficult for the teen to share, if the pauses were anything to go by. It was an honor really.

“Turning into fire…I was able to-to see, for the first time in over seven years, I could see something.” Ace emphasized, a few drops of water streaming down his cheeks, some obvious tears if Izou had ever seen any. But Izou didn’t get a chance to comfort Ace before the youngster just rubbed the tears away and continued on.

“Sailing after that was still difficult, just…not as scary as it was. There were still unknowns, but not as much as there was when I couldn’t see, it was…liberating.” Ace’s face in that moment was just impossible to describe to anyone, and Izou doubts he would ever be able to. The teen just looked so, so pleased. He wasn’t smiling but he wasn’t scowling like he was ought to do here aboard the Moby Dick. His fire was just flickering on the edge of Izou’s vision, adding an almost ethereal quality to the teen, especially when he tilted his head back and his bangs slid to the side to reveal his filmed eyes.

Izou was right at that, the teen looked more stunning with his eyes visible. Now all he needed to do was to convince the black-haired youth to reveal this secret to the crew, maybe that would bring him closer to the family, closer to accepting pops as his pops.

“Ace…who-am I the only one that knows?” he had to be right? No one seemed to treat Ace any different. But how could no one notice something like this? Was Ace really that good at hiding it? Or was the crew really that oblivious?

“Ah-uh…”Ace hesitated, his eyes turning an adorable pink color as his head turned to the side, in an obvious attempt to hide the blush that was there. But Izou saw it, boy did he see it. Now he really needed to know if anyone did know, cause whoever it is, Izou is almost positive Ace has a crush on them.

“It’s alright, Ace. You can tell me anything, I swear to you that I will never share your secrets. Anything you ask me to never share, I will take with me to my grave. All you have to do is ask.” Izou made sure his voice was confidant and unwavering, knowing that any sign of dishonesty would ruin the two’s relationship.

Ace looked so shocked by his statement though. His head recoiled, and he was pressed tighter to the short wall around them. His fire flickered in and out, Izou just now noticing that the flames had spread to encompass the entire floor of the crow’s nest. Just like always the flames weren’t hot but they seemed to almost dance in the space under Izou’s gaze. How odd.

“Marco.” Ace blurted out, drawing Izou’s attention from his intense stared down with the fire. “Marco knows. He found out my first day here…saw my eyes, when I got angry…” well if Izou was expecting anything from this conversation that was certainly not it. The teen had a crush on Marco? Really?

Izou was a bit stumped; sort of shocked at such a realization, but the longer he dwelled on it…the two would make the cutest couple. Marco was already really protective of the crew and just about anything he claims as his own, toss in Ace with his “special trait” and you had the most caring and beautiful picture in the world.

Izou had a goal now, well besides convincing Thatch to sleep with him. He would get Marco and Ace together if it was the last good thing he would ever do. But first, some recon is required.

“No one else knows? Just me and Marco?” Izou asked softly, keeping the tone soothing as to not spook Ace into silence.

“Yeah, just you two.” Ace’s head tilted down, his hair curtaining in front of his face, creating the perfect picture of the “dejected teen”, but that’s not what Izou wants. Izou wants Ace to be happy, confidant, full of life, and cheerful. He wants the fire controller to be the teen the okama has seen underneath his prickly and harsh exterior, and if to do that he has to tear down a few walls then so be it.

“If it’s alright, may I ask you why?” Ace looked confused at that, his head tilting back up, Izou noting that his black eyebrows were knitted in confusion. Well that’s a start at least.

“What do you mean?”

“Why haven’t you told anyone on deck that you are blind? Why are you hiding such an important fact about yourself?” curiosity allowed him the knowledge of Ace’s blindness, surely it will get him some more information as well. Ace seemed really hesitant about talking now, like he knew what Izou was trying to do and was deciding if he could say fuck it or not.

“It’s a weakness.” That was not what Izou was expecting in the slightest. “It sets me apart from everyone else. It makes me an easier target. It makes it harder for me to survive. It-it makes me less of a man.”

Ace’s lip was trembling and Izou felt like he just kicked a puppy. Ace should never cry, ever, not for anything; the sight was just so heartbreaking. It hurt Izou’s heart worse than Thatch’s constant rejections ever could, and before he could think it through, the okama was hugging the more muscled male. His arms wrapped tightly around Ace’s shoulders, his hands pulling Ace’s head to tuck it into the juncture between Izou’s neck and shoulder.

He just held Ace there, squeezing the blind teen something fierce, his own eyes filling with tears at the thought of Ace on a boat, alone and afraid, hating himself for something he couldn’t help. It was such a sad picture, a depressing scene; one Izou never wants to see again, in his imagination or elsewhere. Ace wasn’t meant for that.

It shocked Izou when Ace hugged him back, those warm hands clutching the back of the red kimono the okama put on today, and Izou couldn’t even find it to be upset about the sweat ruining the delicate silk, not when the teen started crying in earnest.

The two stayed just like that for a while, Ace crying into Izou’s shoulder and the elder soothing the other with light coos and rubbing the muscled back with his slighter hands. It took a while for Ace’s cries to taper off, his breathing becoming even and Izou grasped those strong shoulders and moved the other away slightly, only a bit surprised to find the teen sleeping. But it was better like this. The sleep would heal Ace’s mind, if only a little, and it gave Izou plenty of time to plot.

The okama gently laid Ace down, the dark head placed in the kimono clad lap, as Izou stroked those beautiful wavy raven locks while he planned the best way to get his favorite older brother with his new favorite younger brother. The two were both extremely stubborn so this would take quite a while to plan, but that was fine with Izou, this was one of his many talents after all.

**Sort of time skip? Like 3 hours later? Midday?**

It was a lazy sort of an afternoon, one of a very few ever on the Moby Dick. And on the few of these days the crew got, they chose to just relax and hang out with their family. There were people everywhere on the deck, practically no one stayed inside their room, which was why a certain crew member found it odd that Commander Jozu was missing.

Izou was trying to find a certain wayward fire user, and instead came across the third division commander sprawled out on the stairs to the deck, completely knocked out cold. Izou was unsure if he should be angry for Jozu’s sake or exasperated because he knew exactly the person who did this.

Being the good brother he was though, Izou half carried half dragged Jozu to the infirmary, knowing he would wake up pissed if he found himself on the stairs.

With his brother left to the nurse’s capable hands, Izou set off to find his wayward younger friend, who will be his brother. The first stop was the teen’s room, as more often than not that’s where Ace commonly is found due to his preference for his own company than anyone else in the family. Lonely little fire starter, Izou is going to give that little brat a thousand of hugs to make up for all his alone time.

Surprisingly the teen wasn’t there. Well Izou was out of ideas now. The only time Ace left his room was when he searched out Izou himself…or when he was attacking pops, oh shit.

That was the fastest Izou had ever moved in his life, darting out of the small room Ace slept in and racing up the hall, and the stairs then bursting out onto the deck. His arms spread wide, one holding the door open, the other clutching onto the door frame, his breath coming out in pants and his chest heaving with the effort to breath. Fuck, he was never doing that again.

All eyes were on Izou and he opened his mouth to ask if anyone had seen Ace when a loud shout was heard from the upper deck, where pop’s chair was, DAMMIT ACE!

Almost simultaneously every member on deck, all of them save for Jozu and the nurses, looked up at the large chair where pops was situated. And there was Ace, up in the air behind pops, body contorted as he swung a gigantic axe, aiming for pop’s neck.

The little idiot was never going to get the old man’s head that way, especially not when he was coming from behind. Pops hated when people attacked him from behind, and Izou knew the old man was going to react harsher this time around than all the last times Ace attempted to kill him.

Izou was proven right not a second later when Whitebeard’s large hand extended to knock Ace against the cabin door behind him, the sound of the young body crashing through the wooden walls made every member flinch.

Izou just sighed when he saw Ace get up again to run once more at the large man, wrapping his fire around his body and forming it into the shape of daggers, aiming once more for the captain’s neck. This time the captain wasn’t nice enough to knock Ace into the walls, oh no. Izou and Marco, who was on the deck next to pops watched in horror as the devil fruit user flew right over the railings of the Moby Dick and right into the awaiting ocean.

“ACE!!”

**TBC**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright kiddos~ got some sorta bad news for y’all~ I am taking a short break to go back and upgrade my other chapters~ I’m hoping it’ll only take me a week and then I will start working on chapter 6, which I will post within a week of completing the upgrade, hopefully~  
> Hopefully my laptop will be finished by the time I start writing chapter 7~ as always feel free to ask me any questions and I will do my utmost to answer~  
> Thanks y’all!!


	6. The ocean kind of sucks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More or less explained by the title~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. I updated chapter 1. I’ll get to the others eventually~ and I suddenly got inspired to write after completely failing at Biology (never take college BIO online. You will regret it) and I ended up quitting my job because they refused to honor my availability~ but that’s fine I’m moving in a few months anyway~  
> So~ this chapter is dedicated to Setsyume as always~ for being a sweetie and my unofficial beta~ and to FindingThatDamnedOnePiece because I read your name and laughed my ass off~   
> Special mention to 9Lisa6 and Imperial Mint cause y’all are my favorites right nao~ without further ado~

**SET SAIL!**

The crew swore there were two flying bodies instead of one as Izou threw himself at the rail, gripping it tightly in his hands as he stared down at Ace sinking below the waves. But Izou didn’t allow himself to look too long, and instead kicked off his geta and climbed over the railing.

Even hearing Marco’s shout to hold on a second, the geisha jumped right in the water, determined to pull Ace out before his fire was gone for too long. God the teen must be panicking right now. Not knowing where he was going or if he would be rescued. Even if Ace liked Izou, that didn’t mean he thought he’s be rescued, especially not after attacking the old man again.

Once under water, Izou realized something he rather forgot in the heat of the moment. Kimonos are very material heavy, and flow fabulously, which is why Izou loves them so much. But they are not very conducive to swimming underwater. In fact, Izou might be sinking faster than Ace was. How utterly embarrassing.

However, even when sinking, Izou still felt like he needed to grab Ace. Maybe a familiar presence will help him calm down? Maybe not a lot but enough for someone to save them both?

Of course Izou got a bit distracted, cause damn Ace looked good underwater. The man’s heart may have belonged to a certain jovial chef, but he could appreciate beauty when it’s presented. Of course, Ace looked as he always did, with one major exception. His hair wasn’t covering his eyes. And Izou was right. The teen looked absolutely breathtaking with those filmed silver eyes of his showing.

Izou sort of swam, kind of squirmed his way to the sinking teen, his arms extended in front to wrap the teen in them when he reached him.

Unfortunately Izou did not account for Ace’s distrust in just about everything and did not expect the normally fire wielding teen to flail at the simple touch of Izou’s fingers. This led to the unfortunate situation of Izou being knocked out cold. Now they were both more or less screwed.

\--

At first Ace sort of felt a little free, flying through the air as he was. He always wanted to know what it was like to fly. This must be what if felt like. It felt kind of wonderful. The feeling of hitting the ocean dead on was not at all.

Within seconds Ace felt cold, a deep freezing cold down to his bones. His heart started pounding so hard he could hear it in his ears and his worst fear seemed to have come true.

He couldn’t feel his fire. Couldn’t pull it forward to send him impressions. Couldn’t wrap it around him in a cocoon of safety. He was blind again. Just like a year ago, he couldn’t see anything. His fire felt trapped. Stuck inside his body when it should be floating around him, protecting him, guiding him. He was scared.

The water around him was pushing on him, constricting him, breaking him. He was going to die like this. Broken, afraid, pitiful, and pathetic. He was going to perish without dignity, without strength, and without proving himself different from his father. What did he do to deserve this?!

Shocking him out of his thoughts was the brush of something against his arm. Oh god, he was going to get eaten! Reacting purely in defense, Ace tried his damnest to fend off the attacking creature, and he would call himself successful based on there being no more touches after the first. Except he was back to square one, drowning.

He was completely unprepared for the limb, which suspiciously felt like an arm, that wrapped itself around his waist. What the hell? No one should be in the ocean with him. They wouldn’t save the attempted murderer of their captain, that would be stupid. Marco was obviously a fruit user as well so he wouldn’t do it, and Izou was a beauty king and wouldn’t risk his clothes like that. So that brought up the question, whose arm was it?

Then he was being pulled up and his head broke the surface of the water, sharp breaths coming in cause holy shit he needed some air.

To his utter surprise he heard two other deep intakes of breath, who else was there besides the person who rescued him?

His question was sort of answered when a small hand reached over and smoothed his soaking bangs back into their place covering his eyes. Fuck. Did this mean someone else knew he was blind? Two people in one day? This was the worst day ever.

“No worries, Ace. Thatch’ll keep his mouth shut, won’t you, Thatch?” that was Izou’s light voice, no doubt about it. Did the beauty maniac really jump in to save him?

“Uh…I can do that…but…uh…what?” the definitely sounded like Thatch, damn, explaining to someone else.

“Don’t worry about it now, idiot, get me out of here. My make-up is a mess.” Izou was completely no nonsense and got Thatch to move his ass fairly quickly.

At the point Thatch started to swim, Ace realized his fire still hadn’t come back. Oh god. What if he lost his fire forever? No, no. Luffy fell into the ocean tons of time and he still stretched like rubber. So…did he have to leave the ocean completely for his fire to return?

The sound of wood clattering on wood startled Ace out of his discovery. It sounded oddly like a rope ladder being dropped. Maybe Marco tossed it down? The teen couldn’t possibly imagine that anyone else would want to save him.

“Hurry up, kid. Go up first.” Thatch sounded a bit gruffer this time, probably pissed off at being in the water for so long. Damn.

Ace’s hand hit the hull of the ship, expecting a rope ladder and finding nothing. Ace was confused now. He heard the ladder clatter right here, so where was the end wrung? He slapped his hand again to either side and he still couldn’t find the damn thing. What the hell?!

A slight hand wrapped around Ace’s currently searching hand, and the teen really wanted to slap it away, until it guided his hand up from the first spot Ace had slapped. There was the end wrung of the ladder. Ace’s face flushed hotly. It had been such a long time since he had to be guided around. He was a pirate and needed the help of a potential opponent to save himself. Pathetic.

Ace climbed the rope ladder regardless of the heat on his cheeks, and without needing any more help. As soon as his right foot, the last part of him in the water, left the ocean Ace once again felt his familiar warmth. His fire practically burst from his body, like a newly uncaged animal, wrapping the youngster is heat and safety once more. Ace took a brief moment to sigh happily and to just enjoy the feeling of his fire floating around, giving him his “sight” back.

The rest of the climb was spent pushing his fire out and realigning himself with the ship and the people on the deck, a surprising few. But Ace was completely surprised when a large hand wrapped around his right bicep, hauling him over the railing and back onto the deck. Strong arms wrapped around his waist and steadied him slightly as he stumbled.

“Stupid brat. Be more aware, yoi.”

\--

This was a really odd day for Thatch. It started out pretty innocently, an awesome lazy day to be sure. At least it should have been. By all means today should have been the most relaxing day for him this week, hell this month.

Then the little firebug they picked up decided to attack Pops, again. The kid never gives up, that’s for damn sure. But even with the attack, the chef’s day didn’t really change. At that point it was just some more entertainment. The real interruption occurred when the kid got thrown over the railing by Pops.

Thatch was completely fine with sitting back and watching as someone else saved the not so little terror. Until Marco yanked him up from his seat and bodily pulled him over to the rail where Ace flew overboard.

“Marco! What the hell?”

“Go save them.” Marco was panicked but still calm enough to direct Thatch, even while pulling him by his chef collar. If Thatch didn’t know the blue chicken as well as he did, he would think that Marco really didn’t care. But he knew he did. Damn.

“Izou can swim! He can save them!” Thatch by no means wanted to jump in the water. Why ruin his painfully sculpted hair when the okama jumped in to save the kid voluntarily?

Thatch was completely caught off guard when Marco pulled Thatch up to where they were looking eye to eye. Marco’s eyes were completely furious, a light with a sort of fire Thatch had only seen a few times, normally in the heat of battle when an enemy injured a crew mate. Thatch gulped slightly in response.

“Ace is a fruit user and Izou’s kimono is impossible to swim in. You are going to rescue them, yoi.” And then Marco threw him into the ocean. God damn chicken.

It took Thatch a few seconds to get his bearings before he opened his eyes. What greeted him was not at all expected and almost caused him to release his air and drown.

Ace was sinking fairly quickly, his limbs shaking, his hair and clothes fluttering about him. And Izou was pretty close to the teen, eyes closed and looking way too damn pretty for a man. Thatch always preferred seeing Izou with no make-up than the heaps he put on every morning. The man was just breathtaking with all the layers of his kimono floating around his lithe body, and his hair free of it’s normal updo.

But the real shocker wasn’t the beautiful man, nope. Thatch wished it was, but no. The huge shock was looking into Ace’s eyes for the first time, and shit what a shock.

Ace’s eyes were hazy and filmed over, unseeing. They barely moved at all, not even twitching as Thatch swam up to him. Good god. The kid was blind. How could he not have seen that? How could no one have noticed? Holy crap! Was that why he always had his fire around? Did it help him?

Thatch shook the thoughts out of his head and swam over to Izou first, shaking him back into awareness, beautiful chocolate eyes opening up to meet his own. Izou’s first response was to widen his eyes and shout, except they were under water and the sexy fucker couldn’t breathe.

Thatch shook his head and pushed the man up, helping the man reach the surface, before he turned back down to wrap an arm around Ace’s waist, hauling the teen up with him.

When Thatch breached the surface, he wrapped his other arm around Izou’s waist and then just stared at Ace, his legs wading and keeping them all afloat. The teen’s eyes were more visible in the sunlight, more white and less grey. A little eerie, but a bit stunning.

 

Thatch didn’t get a long look at them as Izou sort of reached over Thatch’s broad shoulder and replaced the bangs back to covering the unique eyes.

“No worries, Ace. Thatch’ll keep his mouth shut, won’t you, Thatch?” Izou’s voice was nice and soothing…wait what did he say? Did Izou know Ace was blind?

“Uh…I can do that…but…uh…what?” Thatch just couldn’t wrap his mind around that. How could Izou know but not anyone else? Why would the okama keep something like that from the rest of the family? Especially about their newest brother?

“Don’t worry about it now, idiot, get me out of here. My make-up is a mess.” Yes your highness. Best get Izou out of the water before thinking about it anymore, the man was serious about his make-up. Even if he looked better without the heavy stuff.

So Thatch just started to swim-shuffle his way back to the ship, watching as Marco walked away from the railing only to come back with one of the many rope ladders. Good thinking on his part for sure.

Thatch stopped swimming right next to the hull, looking up at Marco and giving him the go ahead to drop the ladder. It clattered down rather noisily and Thatch almost released Ace when the teen startled and jerked away. He needs to go up first to be sure.

“Hurry up, kid. Go up first.” Thatch pulled Ace closer to the ladder, expecting the teen to just grab the wrung and start climbing.

Thatch just watched in shock and sympathy as Ace slapped the hull a few times, obviously not finding the wrung. The places he was looking was too low, the wrung was above their heads. Thatch was about to say something when Izou reached over, grabbed Ace’s hand and guided him to the wrung.

Ace’s face turned a bright red and his head tilted down, obviously trying to hide that little fact. Oh the poor kid.

Thatch watched as the teen climbed up the ladder, and just smiled when he finally left the water and his fire was released. The flame just flowed around him, caressed him, and made him just seem more light hearted. It was a nice view.

“Don’t ask him about it.” Izou’s soft statement shocked Thatch a little and looked over at the man.

“Don’t ask about what? That he is blind? When were you gonna tell us, Izou?” The chef had no idea why he was suddenly angry. Maybe because Izou never kept anything quiet, but here he is keeping Ace’s secret to himself.

“Thatch.” Izou’s voice was calm, and soothing, as he wrapped an arm around Thatch’s neck, bringing his mouth right beside Thatch’s ear. “Ace has his reasons. Keep it to yourself. And don’t ask him about it. Please.”

With that Izou grabbed the wrung and started to pull himself out of the water, making his way up the ladder slowly, heavy with the soaked fabric clinging to his skin. Thatch just watched him go, completely dazed at what Izou just whispered to him. Did he just say please?

\--

If Marco thought Ace was good looking normally, with his hair soaked and darkened it highlighted his tan skin and cute freckles. The water also made his clothes cling tighter to his body, and damn what a body.

Marco wasn’t even paying attention to anything else on deck; he’d cleared most of the crew away anyway, knowing Ace wouldn’t want anyone to see him as weak. All of Marco’s attention was focused on the teen with fire flaring around his body, and the heat that came from their contact.

The man said nothing after his warning, instead he just dragged Ace away. Marco was completely intent on getting the kid back to an enclosed space and get some answers out of him. These assassination attempts were getting old, and Ace had obviously done something wrong to get to that axe. None of the family would let Ace have it voluntarily, not with all his murder attempts on the old man. It wasn’t out of distrust, but more out of wariness.

Ace was not happy with being dragged around, and he showed it too. He dragged his feet on the ground, grabbed on to every door they passed, and even started to bite at the arm Marco had his hand wrapped around. Marco was done with this.

Marco opened the next door on the right, an empty commander’s room for the nonexistent second division commander. No one would bother them here, so Marco threw Ace inside, following shortly after and closing the door behind him.

The blond rested his body against the door, not locking it in fear of Ace freaking out and shutting down. Didn’t want the kid to have a panic attack after all, just needed him to answer a few questions.

“What the hell, Marco?!” Ace whipped around, pissed off and showing it. The funny thing was that while the teen was obviously furious, his fire was wrapping around Marco’s feet like an affectionate cat. It was an interesting sight, no doubt.

“I should be asking you that, Ace.” The teen flinched at Marco’s use of his name, the man almost never said his name out right like that, and hearing it sent a delightful shudder down his soaking wet back. “When are you going to give this up, yoi? Everyone can see you aren’t truly committed to killing Pops anymore. Why continue the attempts when you obviously don’t want to?”

Marco was truly confused about it. An axe, really? Ace had to know that that never would have worked, the kid is just attacking the old man to keep up appearances. Marco knew that. What Marco didn’t know was why on earth did Ace continue the charade? Why keep attacking when he obviously wanted nothing to do with it anymore.

Ace turned his head away from Marco, his fire also retreating and wrapping around the teen, giving off that infernal unearthly glow. Damn that kid for being so tempting. Their newest recruit had to be sculpted, and buff, and breathtaking, and Powerful, and interesting. Whatever divine being was up there obviously wanted Marco to suffer.

Marco stalked towards Ace, knowing the teen had a particular weakness for physical contact, and planning to take full advantage of that to make him talk. When just out of reach of the fire, Marco lifted his hand and grabbed on the Ace’s chin, manually turning the teen’s head into facing Marco’s own. The kid couldn’t see, but he sure did have some rather expressive facial expressions.

“Tell me, Ace.” Marco spoke softly, practically whispering in the small space. “What has you so afraid of joining the old man’s crew, yoi?”

“Be-cause, I-I’m not…I’m not worth it…” Ace mumbled out, his lips barely moving. Marco hardly heard what the teen said but he did make out the words. Why in fucking earth would Ace say something like that?!

“What. Was. That?” Marco’s voice was harsh now, unlike anything Ace had heard before, and a tone the man normally saved for his enemies, or the assholes who thought it was a good idea to hurt his family.

“I SAID I’M NOT WORTHY!” Ace yelled out, yanking his head out of Marco’s grip and taking a step back. The fire arched into the air and started to bend and weave in some strange dance, pulsing with Ace’s obvious emotions.

“I AM HARDLY A MAN! I CAN’T SEE! I’M A BURDEN! I CAN’T DO EASY THINGS THAT A NORMAL PERSON COULD DO IN SECONDS! WITHOUT MY FIRE I AM COMPLETELY USELESS! I AM BROKEN!”

**TBC**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So am I the only one who cried at the end? Cause let me tell you, the tears are coming down strong….  
> I will admit I rewrote the beginning about 6 different times~ totally not knowing what to do cause I had so many different ideas on how to proceed~ then I took my dog on a walk and BAM! Plot appears~ big thanks to Setsu for helping me sort it all out~  
> So I have the next four-ish chapters figured out, I just have to write them~ I am going to take a break that first weekend in October cause I am gonna be social with my ladies~ and I am hopefully going to iron out the plot a bit with Setsu~ so I will prolly have 7 out before then but don’t expect more than that ^_^  
> Until next time~


	7. Not what they expected

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some stuff happens

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SURPRISE!!! Bet y’all didn’t think you’d see this so early~ XP haha~ and you weren’t going to~ I was gonna epically procrastinate~ then I got a lovely review from InspiringLight in the middle of my school hallway and I am crying and like “fuck~ now I wanna write” and I started that class period~ so thank her for this~  
> Also it’s quite a bit longer than my other chapters~ mostly cause for some reason I just wanted to be really nice and give y’all an epic chapter~ I like to read long chapters so I figure y’all would enjoy one as well~ (and cause the next chapter is probably going to get me my own personal mob with pitchforks and torches XD)  
> Dedicated to Setsuyume as always~ and to InspiringLight for being “Inspiring” XD  
> Enjoy~

**SET SAIL**

Ace was breathing heavy, his eyes watering as his fire wrapped around him tightly. The teen never wanted to reveal his thoughts to anyone, but here he was shouting them out to Marco after almost drowning. Ace’s greatest shame, his lack of sight. His father was second to his disability.

Marco was in stunned silence, watching Ace, his face actually showing his shock for once. How could this-this kid, think he was broken because of his lack of sight? It was a challenge, one Ace had obviously overcome if one just looked at his bounty.

“Wh-what?” Marco couldn’t stop himself, he was simply too flabbergasted to restrain his emotions like normal.

“You-you heard me. I-I’m bro-broken. I’m-I was b-barely able t-to form my o-own crew! I’m a useless pirate!” Ace had dissolved into sobs as he spoke, his hands immediately covering his face as he cried in front of Marco, the first mate of the bloody Whitebeard Pirates.

Marco was sort of at a loss. He has comforted his brothers before but Ace, Ace was special, and different. This was a whole new definition for the word comfort. The teen was just an enigma, so strong but at the same time more fragile than anyone else on the crew. If Marco had any doubts before, now he knew. Ace would only heal with pops, as his son.

Ace took Marco’s silence as what it seemed, a confirmation of Ace’s worst fears. He was broken, useless, a demon, a plague on society. He never should have been born. His mother should have killed him when she had the chance, and lived out the rest of her life happily.

“I-I knew it. You see it too.” Ace lifted his head, swiping his bangs aside as he spoke to the man he respected, a man who obviously saw Ace as the weakling he was. “I should have never been born!”

Ace didn’t know how he was still standing. The grief, the **pain** , of living was pressing down on him, squeezing what little will to live he had left out of his body. The tears poured steadily from his eyes, even as his fire reached out to brush them away. The flame was trying so hard to comfort it’s master, crackling and caressing the teen as normal, hoping to cheer him up.

Nothing was helping Ace, he was too far gone in his pain, his depression. With his fire distracted trying to help the teen find comfort, it wasn’t able to send him any impressions, so Ace didn’t know what Marco was doing.

The man was done seeing this. Ace wasn’t this person. After knowing him for well over a month, Marco could not let Ace say that about himself.

Marco didn’t let himself think anything through, he just moved forward, closer to Ace. Marco knew only one thing, and that was that he needed to comfort the teen. And the best way he had thought to do that was a hug. Ace was weak to physical affection, and that was likely because he hadn’t received much of it in his life.

Marco completely ignored the fire snapping around the boy, he just lifted his arms, stepped forward, and wrapped his arms around the teen’s lithe waist.

Marco stayed like that for a few seconds while Ace obviously tried to absorb the action. When the fire wielder started to shake, Marco raised his right hand up Ace’s back, stroking the muscles he felt underneath the soaking shirt.

When the hand reached the back of the teen’s head Marco pulled Ace forward, guiding his head to where it nestled itself into the junction between the man’s shoulder and neck. Once there, Marco wrapped his right arm around the teen’s shoulder and just squeezed.

It only took a few moments before Ace started to outright bawl, his own arms wrapping around Marco’s middle, using the man as his anchor into reality.

They stayed like that for quite a while, Ace clinging to the man for comfort, and Marco wrapping the teen up in a cocoon of warmth and acceptance.

Ace’s breathing lightened as Marco started to rub his hands up and down that strong back, soothing away aches and tense muscles. The teen deserved to live, deserved to be loved, and cared for. This person in his arms deserved everything.

“Everyone deserves to live, yoi.” Marco spoke softly, his hand caressing Ace’s wet cheek lovingly, his eyes soft as he looked on at the teen.

Ace’s head snapped up at that, his fire reaching around to caress at Marco’s cheeks, almost in wonder. The teen’s eyes were in full view as he faced Marco, his jaw slack and his mouth hanging open. Even his eyebrows raised, the only missing sign of obvious shock was the wide eyes.

“Even blind, you deserve to have a life.” Marco moved his hand down to caress at Ace’s jaw, watching his beautiful face for any sign of discomfort. The teen was still sort shocked, but snapped out of it a little at that statement.

“Th-there are more reasons I shouldn’t exist. It-it’s not just my-my disfigurement.” Ace was whispering still, his voice faltering a bit as he spoke.

Marco was only a little surprised at Ace’s response. He knew there was something else the teen was hiding. Being blind couldn’t have made him feel so violently about his own existence.

“There is not a single thing you could possibly tell me that would make me wish you didn’t exist, yoi.” Marco was firm as he spoke, wanting to make sure that Ace believed the man wasn’t lying to him.

“Haha.” Ace laughed brokenly, his tears coming back full force and his fire wrapped around his neck, brushing his cheeks and stroking his back. He pushed Marco away with his trembling hands and turned away, showing the man his back. With a deep shuddering intake of breath Ace wrapped himself up in his arms and just stayed like that, his body shaking and a soft sob escaping every now and then.

Marco just watched, standing still with his arms hanging down at his sides, for once at a complete loss of what to do. Ace was a mess right now. And he was like that due to some secret, something about himself that he loathes and believes takes away his right to live. What could that possibly be? What could make a man so young consider he shouldn’t exist?

“Why do you all call him pops?” Ace was changing the subject, and Marco was going to let him for now. The man instead looked up to the ceiling and sighed before opening his mouth to speak.

“I am sure I told you this already, but I’ll say it again cause it seems it didn’t stick the first time, yoi.” Marco let out another sigh, crossing his arms and looking back towards Ace. “Because he calls us his sons…we are outcasts, and the world hates us for what we are, so it makes us happy, even if it’s just a word.”

Ace curled up at that, leaving his feet firm on the ground but huddled down and wrapped his arms around his shins, head buried in his knees. The teen was still crying but it seemed like more of a sob now.

“Ace…no matter what it is, pops is going to accept you. He already thinks of you as his son, nothing you could say to him or anyone else will ever make that change. Even if you leave the ship and never come back, pops will always call you his son, yoi.”

Ace didn’t know what to say, didn’t know what to think. His brothers were the only ones who cared about him before, who disregarded his blindness even as he fought to overcome it. Only his brothers had ever loved him unconditionally, well, them and his mother, but he never knew her. But here is Marco, basically telling him that Whitebeard, the man he has been trying to kill for almost a month, loves him the same way his brothers did.

Marco had never lied to Ace before, never even bent the truth a little bit. He was always straight up and blunt, even if he embellished his words when it came to Ace’s disability. So he couldn’t be lying to the teen about this, couldn’t be saying these words to trick the fire user into a false sense of security. Marco meant them, meant ever single word he spoke.

For the first time since his brothers were told, Ace felt like revealing his parentage.

“My mother’s name was Portgas D. Rogue…I took her name…but my birth name was…Gol D. Ace.” Ace spoke quietly, his voice barely above a whisper, and Marco hardly heard it, but he did. That was not at all what the man was expecting. Nope, not at all. “My father was Gol D. Roger.”

Ace didn’t have to even say that last sentence. Marco knew who his father was as soon as the teen said his birth name. Marco never would have thought that the pirate king had a son, least of all that the son would end up on Whitebeard’s ship.

“Well that wasn’t what I was expecting.” Marco spoke matter-of-factly, completely calm, not a single bit of negative emotion in his tone at all. Ace’s head snapped up at that, his fire expanding around him, reaching all the walls, but strangely not heating up at all.

“That-” Ace didn’t even know how to respond to the man, his brothers had more of a reaction than Marco did. What, how could the man not be angry, or upset about this? Weren’t Whitebeard and Gold Roger enemies? Didn’t they hate each other? How could Whitebeard’s first mate be as nonchalant about such a thing as his enemy’s son? Especially when said son was on their ship, and Whitebeard wanted him as a crewmate, as a son? Ace was just so confused.

“I thought you were Roger’s enemies…how-how could you be so-so indifferent?!” Ace’s fire reached for Marco’s hand, caressing it, and holding it, much like Ace wished he could do right now. This was just unbelievable for him, there was no way Marco was this relaxed about something so world altering.

“It doesn’t matter what we thought about Roger. You are you, Ace. Not your father, yoi.” Marco flared his hand a little, bringing out the tip of his fire, allowing the two flames to mix again. Marco just wanted his newest brother to feel comforted.

Marco’s actions had the desired effect as the teen’s tears stopped. Keeping his hand wrapped on Ace’s flames, Marco made his way over to the still crouched teen. He needed to physically touch him, to comfort him with his skin, instead of his fire. He needed Ace to see that he was wanted.

Marco bent down, matching Ace’s position, and wrapped his arms around the teen’s shoulders. He brought forth flames that reached from fingertip to fingertip, spreading all along his arms and collar, connecting all the possible fire he could to Ace’s body. Marco knew that Ace felt more with his fire, just like he saw more with it.

The man knew he was doing the right thing when Ace let out a soft happy sigh, and leaned into Marco’s hug. The teen’s fire wrapped around them, covering them both in a soft warm flame and a pleasant heat, and Marco smiled. Ace’s fire did feel really nice, his phoenix just wanted to burst from his body and bask. Just wanted to spread out in the flames and feel renewed.

It wasn’t the first time Ace ever touched Marco, but it was the first time that they had prolonged contact while the teen was somewhat in control of his actions. He wasn’t intoxicated by the feel of the man’s fire this time, just pleasantly comfortable.

But being this close to Marco, Ace was starting to get curious. He could feel the man’s muscle, and his clothes, and his fire helped give him a rather nice impression. But he never got to let his features sink into his skin. Like he did once with Luffy before he set off.

The fire gave him his mobility, and his impressions, but it wasn’t quite the same as mapping out someone’s traits with his own hands. It was like a half done drawing. The outlines were there, and the overall idea was clear, but the details were missing. Details Ace very much wanted to see.

So Ace took a risk. He unwrapped his arms and placed his hands on Marco’s firm pectorals. Not moving them from there, just waiting to see how the elder would react to that first touch before he proceeded with his exploration.

“Ace?” Marco didn’t sound confused, just curious. Ace responded by lifting his head, letting his bangs fall to the side so the elder could see all of his face as the teen answered.

“I can see impressions with my fire. They are just incomplete, more like outlines than a full picture.” Ace spoke quietly, moving his hands slightly upward to feel around for Marco’s collar bone. “I can fill in the details by, um…”Ace flushed, his face heating up quickly.

“By feeling them with your hands, yoi?”

Ace nodded and tilted his head back down, face still heated from his explanation attempt. Marco surprised him by lifting his own hands and placing them on the back’s of Ace’s. The teen was a bit confused as to what Marco was going to do, until the man started to guide the fire user’s hands.

Marco moved Ace’s hands until they were over the tops of his pectorals, a hand on either side. Slowly the elder slide both sets of hands inward until the met at the middle of the firm muscles. Then with great care, Marco slid Ace’s right hand up until it hit his clavicle, while moving the left hand down, over the first two sets of a six or eight pack, before Marco stopped; Ace’s hand resting right before the start of the next set of abdominal muscles. Carefully the elder lifted both of their joined hands and placed them in the middle of the first pair of abdominal muscles. Once there, Marco traced up in a curve, each hand going in opposite directions, heading out towards the side of the wide chest; ending the movement above the pectoral on either side, right on his collar bone.

Marco stopped all movement then, and just stared at Ace. The teen looked so confused, his black eyebrows furrowed, and his pink lips in a small frown. It was obvious that he had no idea why Marco just guided his hands like that. Well, the man didn’t plan to leave him in the dark anyway.

“Did the skin where I traced feel any different than the rest, yoi?” Ace was really confused by the question, so he focused himself a little, and rubbed his fingers along the indent between Marco’s pectorals. The skin was slightly raised where Marco had guided the teen’s fingers. Was that a-

“Tattoo?” Ace spoke out loud, removing his right hand from Marco’s firm chest to place it on his own left bicep, the exact place his memorial for his brother was.

“Yes. This is my pride and joy. This is a mark of my loyalty to the old man. This tattoo shows that I am a part of the family, yoi.” Marco spoke passionately, his love and pride saturating each word he spoke. Ace was in awe, and showed it by stroking the area of Marco’s chest he previously outlined, filling in the mental picture he started of the man, imagining what the mark must look like.

Without meaning too, Ace trailed his hands up to the base of Marco’s neck and sort of froze with his fingers touching the man’s jaw, afraid he over stepped his boundaries. The elder smirked a little at Ace’s frozen expression, and settled his own hands on the teen’s waist, waiting for the other to make his move.

After a few moments Ace started moving his hands again. This time he was aiming for the man’s face, longing to know what his facial features were. The teen traced the broad jaw first, enjoying the feel of the strong jaw line, and tight skin. From there he traced over the full cheeks, lightly brushing unpronounced cheekbones. Outlining the eyes next, as Marco closed his lids to accommodate the youth. Ace was slightly surprised at how high the man’s eye socket went, but enjoying the feel of the smooth forehead above barely there, thin eyebrows. Bringing his hands down on either side of the man’s now notably handsome face, Ace lingered his thumbs on Marco’s eyelids, longing to see the color of the irises.

“They’re blue, yoi.”

Ace was shocked by Marco’s sudden statement, but smiled slightly at his words. The man could read him well. The teen frowned at that thought. Was it a good thing Marco could read him? Ace didn’t really want to think too hard about it.

“Thank you.” Ace spoke quietly, trying to convey how much he appreciated the man allowing the intrusive touch. He never tried to fill in the details for his old crew, he just wasn’t that curious, but it wasn’t the same feeling with Marco. Marco lit aflame every single bit of curiosity Ace ever had present. As a matter of fact, so did Izou and Thatch, just neither quite as intense as Marco.

Briefly Ace wondered if he would ever get the chance to fill in the lines to the other two’s appearance. Maybe. But highly unlikely. Izou always had make-up on from what the man told him, and sweaty hands would ruin the okama’s hard work. And the most curious thing about Thatch was his hair, and from what he was told by Izou, the chef hated people touching it cause it destroyed a very delicate balance.

Marco startled Ace out of his musings by gripping the teen’s face between large warm hands, tilting his face up, most likely so the other could get a better look at his unusual eyes; though the action did jar the teen’s own hands from the man’s handsome face, forcing them to hang by his sides once more. Ace didn’t mind, for once, that someone could see his eyes. Marco just allowed the teen to practically molest him, the least he could do was let the elder look at his blind eyes more closely.

It took a second, but suddenly Ace’s fire flared in heat as his own thought caught up with him. Oh god! He did more or less molest Marco!! The man may have guided him to half of it, but that’s not the point! He was feeling up the elder and the elder didn’t ever think twice about it! What did this say about their relationship?! What did this say about Marco’s feelings toward Ace?!

The teen’s face was so red, and Marco just chuckled lightly at the view. This kid was just too damn cute. It should be against the law for him to entice so many emotions from the first mate of the strongest pirate crew on the ocean. But Marco didn’t really care that much, he was just enjoying the view of Ace’s handsome face lit up with a blush, highlighting the teen’s youthful freckles, and his strangely enticing eyes.

Marco felt bewitched as the younger’s fire danced around the room, heating and cooling swiftly, emitting a strange ethereal allure. The man wasn’t even aware he was leaning closer to Ace, pulling the other’s face closer with his own hands. He was just taken with the teen’s looks, his attractiveness, that the only thought running through his head was to kiss those lovely pink lips.

And Marco was okay with that. He was perfectly content to kiss the teen, to claim him as his own, and he damn well was going to do so now. Until of course he was interrupted by the door slamming open by the strength of his best friend. Marco was going to kill Thatch one day. Whether it be in secret or out on deck where everyone could watch, the man was somehow going to be killed by the phoenix’s hand. The chef just had the worst timing in the whole damn world.

Ace let out a light squeak, and jerked his head back, trying to dislodge the elder’s hands, but Marco was having none of that. The man kept a firm grip on the cheeks as he slowly turned to glower at the two intruders at the door. Ace’s face just seemed to keep heating, especially when neither onlooker deemed to make a comment. This whole situation was embarrassing and mortifying.

“Can we help you, yoi?” Marco’s voice was harsh, and it caused Ace to flinch back a little. That was not the voice of someone in a good mood. Shit. Did he cause that? And as if reading the teen’s thoughts, Marco stroked his thumbs down Ace’s cheeks, soothing him in his own hopefully discreet way.

“Don’t give me that tone, Marco. You can’t just monopolize Ace, we are his friends too.” Izou’s normally light voice was harder, but Ace could hear the underlying teasing in his voice. The okama thought this was funny. And the teen had no idea what to think about that.

“Besides, birdbrain, I think Ace owes me an explanation, don’t you?” Thatch’s voice was loud in the small room, and the teen jerked away from the sound. It hurt his ears. The man was so noisy. Wait. Did he just call Marco birdbrain? What the hell?

“Shut the door, you idiot. Ace doesn’t want this getting around so some privacy would be appreciated.” Izou spoke to Thatch quietly, before making his way to the two still squatting on the ground.

The okama sort of twirled and sat down on the ground next to Ace, pulling the teen down with him, so that he was sitting on his butt instead of slowly putting his legs to sleep. The move surprised Marco, who was still holding on to Ace’s face, so rather than the teen’s transition being graceful, it consisted of him slamming on the ground, then falling over as the weight of Marco followed him.

Thatch turned around from locking the door at the exact moment that the two fruit users settled from their fall. Ace was lying on his back and Marco was face planted in the teen’s nicely muscled chest. It didn’t look all too strange to Izou but Thatch just had to make a stupid comment.

“I don’t think I came here to watch you two make out…” he didn’t sound like he was joking, which was a scary thought considering the man was almost always joking. As he sat down next to Izou, the okama smacked him upside the head, giving the chef a quick glance to let him know that the statement wasn’t appreciated.

“Anyway. Get up, you two, and tell this caveman what is going on before he pops.” Thatch must have done something stupid for Izou to be acting this cold towards him. Ace didn’t think the okama could even be that rude to someone.

Marco removed himself from the Ace’s firm body reluctantly. The teen was really comfortable dammit. But he knew Izou’s fuse was fairly short at the moment, so he just sat criss cross next to the fire wielder, positioning himself in such a way that his knee and part of his thigh were still touching Ace.

Said teen moved to sit up only moments after Marco’s warmth left his own. He sat similarly to Marco, enjoying the contact the man provided, and returned the subtle display of affection by sliding his fire in such away that it touched everyone in the make shift circle, but was particularly warmer around the firm man to his right.

“Ahem.” Izou pulled the attention to himself, smiling when Ace’s fire fluttered against him, showing the man that he had Ace’s attention. Marco and Thatch both looked over at him, waiting for him to start whatever this was supposed to be.

“Ace, Thatch wants your explanation about your eyes.” Izou blurted out, not softening the question at all, and Ace stiffened in response. The teen lifted his hand to finger at the bangs that were pulled to either side of his face, framing it quite beautifully, in Izou’s opinion.

“I think it would be pretty obvious, yoi. Just looking at the kid’s eyes you can tell he’s blind.” Marco spoke softly, placing his hand on Ace’s lower back to get the teen back into reality.

“I know that, feather head. I want to know why he is hiding it from the crew.” Thatch’s voice was back to the normal jovial tone but there was something darker hidden under the man’s voice. It didn’t give Ace the creeps like the Teach guy from a few weeks ago, but it was definitely something that rubbed the teen the wrong way.

“Because it’s nobody’s business.” Ace responded, his fire flickering at the chef’s legs, daring the man to say anything about it. He didn’t expect the man’s outburst.

“BECAUSE WE ARE FAMILY DAMMIT!” Thatch shot to his feet, his form looming over Ace almost threateningly. “FAMILY DOESN’T KEEP SECRETS LIKE THAT FROM EACH OTHER! SIBLINGS DON’T KEEP SECRETS LIKE THAT FROM EACH OTHER!”

Thatch’s chest was heaving and his breath was coming out in pants. Marco and Izou both had their heads facing towards their brother, wondering what the hell brought that out, and Ace took advantage of their inattention to leap to his feet as well. Getting closer to Thatch as he moved, Ace only stopped when the man was facing his, no doubt, ugly eyes, speaking low and gravelly.

“I already have brothers. I didn’t ask for any more.” It was everyone else’s turn to be surprised; they didn’t expect Ace to say something like that. Hell they didn’t expect Ace to have any family. Marco more so considering the teen told him who his father was only a few minutes ago.

“They aren’t my blood brothers, but they are all I have ever had.” Ace spoke quietly, his anger releasing from him with every soft word. Thatch also deflated at the teen’s tone, his anger seeming a little silly now that he thought about it.

“We don’t want to replace your brothers, Ace.” Izou spoke, reaching his hand up to slip it in Ace’s. Squeezing the appendage lightly, trying to give the teen as much comfort through that simple touch as he could. Ace’s fire responded by circling the okama’s lower half, flicking up every now and then to caress the man’s shoulders.

“We just want you in our family, too.”

Ace was so conflicted right now. Images of the last time he saw Luffy and Sabo together flicked through his mind, lighting up the darkness with warmth and comfort. But those images faded slightly and were soon over shadowed by Izou’s outline laughing at one thing or another, Marco’s tattoo and face lighting up with almost the same detail as his brothers, the imagined bright blue eyes shining. An outline of Thatch joining in, the man smiling, and chuckling along with a joke one of the other crew members shared, the only color being the bright white of the chef’s smile.

The flashes were cut off suddenly by a warm hand touching his shoulder, and suddenly his fire was fluttering around Marco, the man a steady presence against the ever changing flames. And in that same instant Ace knew.

He knew these people would accept him. They would care for him, help him, **love** him. And he knew this because of the man standing right there, the man comforting him with his touch. If Marco hadn’t been so calm about Ace’s parentage, he wouldn’t have even considered what he was about to say. But the man convinced him, and the fire user wasn’t even sorry for that fact. Ace was ready for this, ready to be accepted. Ready to be a **son**.

“Take me to Pops.”

**TBC**

**Cut scene**

Izou walked swiftly from the deck, trying to get as much space between him and the very wet, very sexy, chef that saved him. It didn’t work too well as the damn man was **following** him. But the man didn’t give up, he just sped up his pace, glad he didn’t put the geta back on after he was on the deck.

“Izou!”

Nope not going to slow down. Going to keep walking and ignore the deep sensual voice yelling behind him. Just going to keep going. Going to change into a fresh kimono, chase down Marco and Ace, and get to dinner on time, all without seeing the frustrating asshole currently chasing him.

“Stop walking away from me dammit!” Oh hell no.

Izou whipped around in an instant, standing firm and glaring at Thatch as he stopped right in front of the okama.

“You don’t get to tell me to stop walking away, you ass monkey!” Izou yelled, his creative cursing coming out full force as he poked Thatch in his broad nicely muscled chest. The smaller man glared up at the figure who had been tormenting his days and nights, focusing as much anger as possible at the man.

“You always walk away from me! You ignore me, you pretend I am not there, you act like you don’t know! I’m tired of it Thatch. I am tired of this whole thing. You want to know about Ace? Fine. But don’t ever tell me to stop walking away from you. Because now? Now I am never going to stop.” Izou was huffing, out of breath from yelling, and felt quite satisfied by the man’s “what-the-fuck” expression.

Izou turned around once more, aiming for his room, sending one last sentence over his shoulder as he went.

“Meet me outside of your room in 30 minutes. We’ll track those two down and you can get your stupid questions answered.”

**End~**

_“Wait Izou, my love!”_

_“Oh Thatch, do you mean that?”_

_“Yes, my dear. I have always yearned for you with the passion and strength of a thousand flaming okamas!”_

_“Oh~ Take me now, you broad muscled man! Make me yours in the most animalistic way!”_

_“Yes, anything for you, my flaming lover!”_

**Don’t ask.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So…..See you next time~ as always feel free to ask any questions~ or even point out any mistakes~


	8. The feels are strong in this one

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> .....no comment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So…this took me a while~ I had a horrible case of bleh…so in recompense I wrote you this super long 6000+ chapter for y’all~   
> There are two OCs that show up in here but they are minor but still my babies~   
> This chapter is dedicated to the wonderful Setsuyume as always and again to InpiringLight cause when I didn’t feel like writing I just went to reread her review and I had a renewed vigor to finish!!! So enjoy my dears~

**SET SAIL!**

“Well that’s not what I expected when Marco came knocking at my door.” The old man spoke gruffly, his voice blanketing over Ace, much like his fire is ought to do. The teen was still nervous despite the man’s soothing tones.

“To think that brat, Roger, had his own brat. Gurarara.” The man laughed but it didn’t make Ace feel any better. He really wished he’d agreed to let Marco stand in the room as Ace told Whitebeard about his father. But no, the teen wanted to do this without using the soothing man as a crutch. Plus he distracted Izou and Thatch.

Ace may have told Marco about his father, and now Whitebeard, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to tell anyone else on the ship. Ace was going to be infamous and respected on his own merit, not because of who his father happened to be.

But now, with this powerful man’s full attention on him, Ace wished that Marco was here to help anchor him into reality. To keep him from completely freaking himself out.

“Bah. None of that means anything. Are you here to officially become my son?”

Ace was completely shocked. Just like Marco. The old man completely disregarded Ace’s parentage, like it meant nothing. Almost as if Ace wasn’t an unneeded existence, as if he actually deserved to be alive, as if he was actually loved. By someone other than his brothers of course.

At that point the tears began. They just started to slide down his cheeks, leaving hot trails in their wake. Ace’s fire responded by wrapping tightly around the teen’s shoulders, like a comforting hug, before it extended itself, reaching towards Whitebeard.

The man just sat there, completely at ease with a large amount of fire heading towards him. The first touch of the man’s body had Ace crying harder. The fire floated around the old man, around pops. Imprinting the image of his towering for, his smile flashing in Ace’s mind, the moustache matching the tattoo he felt on Marco’s chest. At least that would explain why the other called it his proof of being part of the family.

Whitebeard shocked Ace further by wrapping his hand around the teen’s fire, like he was shaking it’s hand. It was an odd feeling for Ace, not many people treated his fire like it was living. Ace was almost tempted to tell the old man he was blind. Almost. He didn’t want the man to take back his invitation, despite what Marco said, the teen still doubted he would still be welcome after people found out about his disability.

“Take my mark, Ace. Become my son.” And Ace was nodding his head, tears slowing as he tilted his head slightly to make it seem like he was actually looking at Pops. The teen smiled wide, his hands trembling lightly as his fire conveyed the larger man shifting to move forward.

And suddenly the huge man was wrapping his arms around Ace’s shoulders, kneeling down in front of the teen. Ace just laughed and wrapped his arms around the man’s thick neck, laughing as his fire engulfed the two in a fierce warm hug.

“Welcome to the family, son.”

** -this is a line dammit- **

Marco wasn’t busy pacing. No, he wasn’t. He wasn’t worried about what Ace was telling Pops, no not at all. He wasn’t afraid that the fire using teen was trying to kill the old man. Nope, not at all.

Who was he kidding. He was panicking something fierce. He didn’t remember a single time he was as nervous and worried as he was at this moment, not even when pops collapsed the first time in the midst of battle. So yeah, he was pacing the space in front of his captain’s door, muttering ever now and then about how he should be in there with the teen, to at least offer some sort of support.

Luckily he didn’t have to babysit Thatch and Izou while he was busy worrying. The two seemed to not want anything to do with each other and ran off as soon as Marco said he was going to wait in front of the door until the two in the room were done. Neither of them wanted to risk sticking around if the other was going to be there.

How odd. Normally Izou couldn’t stop himself from hanging around Thatch, hoping the chef would change his mind one day about only dating women. So why was he suddenly avoiding the man like he had the plague?

Marco loved all his siblings. Loved them, protected them, and cared for them. But Thatch and Izou were a little closer to his heart by just a smidge. He had been rooting for Izou to convince the chef into a relationship, they would be practically perfect together. It probably would have happened too. Thatch was started to stare at Izou a little longer than usual, he was twitchy when he didn’t know where the feminine man, and he got extremely jealous when other men would pay attention to Izou when they landed at a port. The man was going to give in soon, but then he must have stuck his foot in his mouth, and said something to piss the kimono-clad man off.

The thoughts were blown out of Marco’s mind instantly, when the, until now closed, door swung open. Ace was standing there in all his beautiful glory. His black bangs still covered his eyes, even with the wind, but still Marco could see the tear stains on his freckled cheeks. The large smile that graced his lips easily colored the tracks with a happy light, rather than a sad one. It was quite the sight to see, and Marco was immensely glad that he was the only one there to appreciate it.

“How’d it go, yoi?” Marco blurted out as soon as Ace had shut the door behind him, his hands coming up to grip the teen’s nicely shaped shoulders. He barely even twitched as the overactive fire covered him and wrapped him up in an entirely too enjoyable embrace. His phoenix really like Ace’s fire, that was for sure.

“Will you design the tattoo for me, and be in the room while I get it done?” the teen breathed out, his head tilting up causing the bangs to slide to the side and reveal those still gorgeous hazy grey eyes. It actually took a second for Ace’s words to set in, especially since Marco was utterly enthralled with the teen’s face. It was quite the sight when he smiled.

Once processed, a huge smile graced Marco’s lips. His eyes widening well past his normal half-lidded, his hands sliding down to wrap around the trim waist of his new “brother” and the laughter couldn’t be stopped as he hugged the hell out of Ace.

Marco was so happy for Ace. The fire fruit user deserved this. Even if he had brothers already, even if he had a crew already, this, the Whitebeard Pirates were going to be good for the teen. Good for his self-esteem, good for his character, and good for his emotions. This was just going to be amazing for the teen. And that made Marco ecstatic.

“Where do you want it, yoi?” Marco asked after his laughter died, his eyes trained on Ace entirely, watching as the smile on his face slid from being so fantastically happy, to a serene sort of joy.

Ace’s hands trailed lightly up the phoenix’s body, and the blonde shuddered as those calloused tan hands made their way to his exposed chest. The teen’s hands just stayed there, surprisingly placed right on the elder’s own Whitebeard tattoo.

Marco detached his hands from the teen’s body, and brought them to rest on top of the other’s. He looked carefully at Ace, trying to discern the intent behind the movement, but finding none. He decided to throw caution in the wind and just guess.

“Your chest?” the man asked quizzically, making sure to watch Ace for any sign of movement. He wasn’t really surprised when the teen shook his head, his fire reaching up to caress at Marco’s clothed back. Well that was certainly quite the hint. But before the blonde could say anything, the raven spoke first.

“I want the Jolly Roger.” His voice was soft, reaching Marco’s ears only with the help of the wind. The request puzzled the man. What did he mean by that?

“What do you mean, Ace?”

“Right here, I want the Whitebeard Jolly Roger right here.” Ace spoke again, his fire strengthening the power behind the caresses to his back. Suddenly the first statement made more sense. But why did the teen want the Jolly Roger? Surely he had never seen it before. How would he know he would like it?

 “Why the Jolly Roger, yoi?” Marco was curious now, and he wouldn’t confirm Ace’s request until he knew why the teen wanted an exact replica of the Whitebeard Jolly Roger on his back.

“Because then no one would be mistaken.” That was understandable, kind of. Mistaken for what?

“With the Jolly Roger on my back, no one could mistake that I am a Whitebeard son. That I am part of this.” Ace rubbing the blonde’s chest lightly with that last part. “That I am a part of something worthy.”

Marco didn’t need to hear any more after that. Just smiled and wrapped an arm around Ace’s shoulders and started heading towards the infirmary, for the tattoo artist to get started. To other’s it would simply look like a friendly gesture, but Marco was subtly guiding the teen as they walked. Ace’s soft smile was enough of a reason for the blonde to continue to do so.

A thought hit Marco then, and he smirked wickedly, shocking three other family members that were also walking in the hallway.

“You know, yoi. With the old man’s mark on your back, you can’t wear shirts. Except in dire situations.” Ace’s sputtering made Marco laugh all the way to the infirmary. The kid was going to be the death of him for sure.

** -this is another line dammit- **

Marco was the first to exit the tattoo room, a smile on his face, and his jacket suspiciously missing. It was a shock to the crew watching as he left the room. No one ever went into the tattoo room unless they were getting a tattoo, obviously, so why was Marco in there?

“Yo! Marco!” ­­­one of the few non-nurse female members yelled out, running up to the man with a surprising speed.

Marco looked over to her and his eyes widened slightly, just now noticing the crowd up on the deck. When did so many people come out? It was still early for the sea’s sake.

“Something you need, Haruta?”

“Yeah! Did you get a new tat? Can I see it?!” Haruta was extremely hyper as she bounced around the blonde, causing many others to laugh. The girl was always a little more annoying when she was hyper, after all, it was funny to watch her with the first mate. She always managed to crack his normally calm exterior. However when Haruta didn’t see a new tattoo she looked at Marco funny.

“Did you get it somewhere naughty?” Marco choked and everyone else stopped trying to hide their laughter and just busted out at the girl’s blunt manner of speaking. Only Haruta would ask something like that and be so completely honest about it.

“N-no!  wasn’t getting a tattoo, yoi!” Marco sputtered out, his normally composed face faltering as he yelled. He brought a hand to his face, smacking himself loud enough for the whole crew present to hear. He dragged his hand up to run it through his blonde whisps, sighing as everyone looked at him expectantly. They clearly wanted to know what he was doing in there, if not getting himself some new ink.

“I was chaperoning the marking of our newest member.” His voice wasn’t loud by any means, but it carried. Every single person on deck froze and just stared at the first mate with obvious shock. Nothing could have prepared them for that…wait…did that mean…

“That fire kid?!!” Several of them yelled, still befuddled at Marco’s statement.

“Yes. The Artist is bandaging **Ace** up now, yoi. Don’t hassle about him joining, or about what his tattoo looks like, or even about where it is. We don’t want the mark to be damaged after all.” Marco turned to the left and gestured to Thatch, who was hanging around the railing, still avoiding Izou.

The pompadour-sporting man came to Marco’s side quickly enough, curious about Ace’s tattoo, and why exactly his best friend wasn’t wearing his signature jacket.

“What’s up, feather butt?” Thatch giggled at his creative name, but sobered swiftly when the blonde glared at him. Marco certainly didn’t seem to be in the mood for the chef’s usual shenanigans. Thatch briefly wondered why he wasn’t up to jokes, but pushed it off as the blonde being overprotective of Ace…or something…

“I need you to go grab my extra jacket from my room. Ace has my usual one, yoi.” That certainly explained one of Thatch’s questions, but he opened his mouth anyway to ask the obvious ‘why’ question, but snapped it shut upon Marco’s intensifying glare. Not gonna poke the sleeping phoenix. Nope.

“Yep. Gotcha. On my way.” Thatch turned and swiftly made his way towards Marco’s private room, knowing precisely where said extra jacket was located. And if he moved a little faster than normal no one said anything, not wanting to face the first mate’s wrath.

Marco turned towards Haruta, who was staring up at him and gaping. The girl loved to make new friends, coconspirators, and was no doubt already plotting the ways she could get the fruit using teen to assist her in her schemes to overtake the Moby Dick in pranks. Marco knew that the two would be near unstoppable if they ever joined forces.

“Don’t badger him too much, squirt.” He said lightly, ruffling her hair and turning her away from the still closed tattoo door. Marco also took the liberty to push the stubborn female farther in the direction opposite of said door, no need to make her plans easy after all. And because the phoenix didn’t want people to crowd Ace when he did end up leaving the room.

The crowd of family seemed to be growing in size as news about Ace travelled around the ship. Especially with how long the teen was in the room. It never took this long for the Artist to wrap up a tattoo…how big was the thing?

When the door finally did open, the crowd was pumped and excited, completely ready to greet and welcome their newest brother. However their excitement died as quickly as a fruit fly when instead of Ace, the Artist was standing there in the swung open door. Asshole.

“Oh? Are all of y’all looking to get some more ink?” he smirked, whipping his stained hands on his pants, looking between each member on the deck, daring one of them to say yes.

In response to his question all of the assembled crew turned their heads and whistled, obviously trying not to draw any attention to themselves. The Artist was well known for being extra sadistic with inks other than the old man’s mark; so no one wanted the man to single them out for a new tat, he would drag a crew member into his chamber whether that person wanted a tattoo or not. He was the closest definition to evil on the ship.

“So that’s all of you? Great, line up.” His smirk widened and he stared down every single person there, whether they were looking at him or not.

That got everyone into motion fast. None of them wanted to be caught by the man obsessed with his needles and other’s pain. Nope. They high-tailed it out of there, completely forgetting the reason they were all there, to see Ace and welcome him to the crew.

The Artist just smiled widely, pointed teeth showing with little care, his dark brown eyes shining in vicious glee. He was certainly quite the sight. Marco though, was one of the few members of the crew that didn’t fear the demonic man a bit. The man was an impressive fighter, and a great artist but Marco certainly didn’t fear the sadism the man showed.

To show his own lack of fear of the first mate, the Artist turned toward the blonde, his glee practically tangible as the two sized each other up. It almost looked as if they were going to start brawling, but they shattered that air by clasping each other’s forearms, Marco’s tan skin contrasting with the other’s darker tone quite beautifully.   

“Thanks for that, Uchoraji. How’s Ace, yoi?” Marco spoke quietly, not wanting to alert anyone else to the Artist’s softer side. The darker man just smiled in response before unclasping their arms and turning back to the door and placing his strong hand on the door knob.

Marco was only a bit confused until the Artist opened the door and revealed a slightly disheveled Ace, torso all wrapped up, and the phoenix’s jacket draped around his broad shoulders. Marco would be lying if he said seeing the teen wrapped up in his normal jacket didn’t send a thrill through his body. It was just so delicious looking.

“You okay, Ace? Are the wrappings hurting you at all, yoi?” Marco asked lightly, looking over at the teen with slight concern. The wrapping process was generally painful for the younger members, but then Ace already had a tattoo before he got the old man’s mark so he might be just fine.

The teen smiled brightly and Marco caught the briefest glimpse of those breathtaking grey eyes before the black-haired fringe fluttered back into its proper place, hanging in front of those gorgeous eyes. Ace was practically glowing in happiness, and the phoenix couldn’t help but smile widely in return. Especially as the teen’s fire spread to envelop Marco’s legs, and wrapping around his shoulders, one of the teen’s specialty fire hugs. Those made the blonde a little ecstatic each time he was graced with one.

**-this is just a PoV change dammit-**

“I feel just fine, Marco!” Ace exclaimed happily, his fire leading him to the other man, his adrenaline from getting the mark on his back causing him to bounce on his way to the other. Ace didn’t know why, but he really wanted to hug the bigger man, wanted to wrap himself and his fire tightly around that bare skin. And for once Ace didn’t listen to the voice in his head telling him it was a bad idea.

The teen threw his arms out to either side, barely missing hitting the Artist with his hand as he did so. His two arms came around the other quickly, and Ace wasted no time in securing his arms around Marco’s shoulders then jumping slightly to wrap his legs around the man’s waist.

Obviously the first mate did not expect such a move from Ace, because as soon as the teen secured himself to the other, said man fell right over. The force of hitting the deck caused the fruit using teen’s head to snap forward and a warm moistness hit his lips. What was that? It’s not like he could open his eyes and see what it was…

What was warm and moist and on a person’s face?

Ace’s face lost all heat almost immediately…was he kissing Marco’s eyes? That’s too weird. Oh god. Marco is gonna think he’s a freak! Well…a bigger freak than he already is…oh what was he thinking?! Hugging Marco like that! Of course he was going to topple over…shit…what should he do now?

All thoughts stopped as whatever was connected to Ace’s lips moved…opened in fact…and something wet and soft caressed his lips…Ace went completely slack, he wasn’t kissing Marco’s eyes, he was kissing his mouth!

Ace didn’t know what to do at all. The only people he was ever really close to were his brothers, what with the whole eyesight thing, so he had never been, well, intimate with anyone. Oh great sea gods above. Ace was having his first kiss.

Marco seemed to be just fine with caressing Ace’s lips with his effing **tongue** , so the teen just sort of let go. His fire more than content to wrap around them both, pressing up against Marco’s own fire which seemed to have come out with the fall. Ace moaned as his fire made contact with the other flames, and Marco seemed to find this a great opportunity to slip his tongue into the teen’s mouth.

Oh shit. What should he do?! He didn’t know how to respond to something like this! What if Marco thought he was a terrible kisser?! What if he never wanted to do it again?! Wait, why did Ace **want** him to do it again.

Ace was so flushed he was afraid he was going to turn into fire. That would be a great thing; got so embarrassed by kissing the first mate of the Whitebeard Pirates that he turned into flames and scared the man away.  Wonderful.

Once more though, Ace’s thoughts left him completely as the two different fires melded together, closer this time than the last, almost as if trying to become one. Ace’s couldn’t stop the pleasant shudder making its way down his spine any more than he could stop the moan that broke free from his mouth. The vibration tickled the other lightly, and seemed to have caused Marco to raise his hand up and wrap it in Ace’s long locks.

Oh, this was so embarrassing, but felt so good all at the same time. He wanted the man to stop, while wanting him to never let go. He was a being of contradictions, that was for sure. Ace was sure they were just going to keep on with the kissing when a clearing throat shocked them both out of that train of thought.

“I’m glad y’all have an attraction for each other, but the deck is not the place for y’all to discover the reaches of it. Especially you, first mate.” Ace completely forgot about the Artist. That was something he had never been able to say before. The teen never forgot anyone while he was still awake and in company, would be dangerous if they surprised him and his eyes were revealed after all.

Ace flushed entirely, he could feel his whole face light up in a blush, as he pulled away from Marco, straddling the man’s hips, hands on his bare chest. What a nice chest though…wait…stop, get away from that train of thought, Ace. No physical relations on deck…or at all…cause he’s not interested in Marco like that…nope…not at all.

Marco shifted a bit before he was sitting up, Ace sliding back slightly till he was seated in the taller man’s lap, hands still loosely placed on the strong torso before him.  The man just kept moving, and Ace couldn’t stop the moan that bubbled out when a certain part of Marco’s rubbed so amazingly against the same part on Ace. Marco stilled completely at that, and the teen couldn’t help but blush harder. He just couldn’t win today, could he?

“Oh my god! MY EYES!”

And things just kept getting worse. That was Thatch, who no doubt thought they were doing something indecent…well they were but not anymore!!

“Shut it, Thatch. And give me my extra jacket, yoi.” Marco spoke, his voice sending a delectable shiver down Ace’s spine, the man’s voice was like a soft velvet to the ears. And with Ace picking up more sounds than others do, he just wanted to cry out and bury himself into that sound.

Ace couldn’t hear Thatch’s response, but the teen doubted the man didn’t make one. The chef seemed to love ruffling Marco’s feathers, regardless of the fact that they seem to be really close to each other. Ace wondered briefly why he couldn’t hear the man, when he felt light headed. His arms lost all their strength and he flopped against Marco’s chest without anything to hold him up.

For once in his life, Ace was thankful for his narcolepsy. Nothing like a sleep attack to save him from an awkward situation. His last thought before he travelled happily to dreamland, was of how nice the heat from Marco’s hands felt when placed on his back.

**-this is the third line dammit-**

The day calmed down from there. Marco carried Ace back to his room, and the teen did not wake up until the next day, scaring the whole family as he yelled his grief at missing a meal. It was a rather hilarious wake up call, and no one really complained when they were greeted to the sight of Ace slumped over a mess hall table, his bare back proudly displaying the Whitebeard Jolly Roger.

Everyone came up to Ace to welcome him to the family. It was quite amazing to the teen, never having this many people care about him in his life. All the commanders greeted him, and Ace was even surprised with the feeling of his first mate, Ankana. The man’s gruff voice lifted the teen’s spirits, especially when they got to chat over breakfast.

Apparently the rest of the Spade Pirates were split up into different divisions and were all doing various chores right now, but would happily greet Ace later. Ankana himself was being privately trained by the Artist, whose name wasn’t well known amongst the crew. The ex-first mate had to show the man that he was one of the few worthy enough to know it. Ace wasn’t going to ruin his friend’s enthusiasm by telling him it was Uchoraji.

The day was just fantastic for Ace. He couldn’t stop smiling and happily chatted with anyone who came up to him. A lot of the members really just wanted to welcome him and question the always present fire. Ace laughed them off mostly, and replied with a vague response about it being a defense thing in case of surprise attacks.

Marco had to work hard to have Ace on a duty with someone who knew about his lack of eyesight. Very few of the chores on deck could be done without being able to see what one was doing. If someone who knew was with him than no one else would catch on that the teen was blind, clearly a fact he wanted to keep to himself and those who had already discovered.

Ace never once mentioned the kiss he shared with the first mate, and in fact seemed to be avoiding the man for a few days before he decided to just pretend it never happened. Marco seemed to have decided the same thing, as he too never brought up the moment they had shared.

Izou finally started talking to Thatch again but was rather cold about the whole thing, only talking to him the bare amount to continue on with his daily duties. The chef on the other hand seemed to be getting more and more annoyed as days passed by. The cross-dresser couldn’t honestly continue this stupid charade of nonchalance for very long, the man was tired of the feminine man snubbing him.

Marco and Ace were both looking forward to the day when the normally jovial chef would snap. In fact, Ace started going around collecting bets on how long it would take the man to blow up completely and drag Izou back to his room to have some raunchy sex. Okay, well the sex part wasn’t explicitly said in the bet, but everyone knew it was in the underlying meaning.

It was during the bet collecting that Ace finally came face to face with the only female commander, Haruta. To say they just clicked was an understatement. The smaller seemed to just get Ace’s humor and the two enjoyed running around the ship and causing mischief whenever they didn’t have chores or duties to perform.

The girl also joined in on Izou and Ace’s private talks from time to time, well aware of the taboo about bringing up the rambunctious chef. But the times Haruta didn’t join their talks, Ace mostly ended up hugging the kimono-clad man and listening to him rant and rave about what an inconsiderate asshole the chef was. Ace knew to just stay quiet during those times, knowing anything he said could potentially set the man off into an angry tirade instead.

It was a very eventful three months for the fire using fruit user. He was genuinely happy. Even without his brothers he was cared for, and nothing could make Ace happier. He was content in the rare fights that happened on the Moby Dick, ecstatic when training with other crew members, and beyond all levels of happiness whenever he was talking with a family member.

It was the proudest and happiest the teen had ever been. In fact, it was the reason Ace was so ready and prepared for his first mission. He wanted to do something for his crew, for his family, besides fighting and doing chores around deck.

The task was a simple one, and Marco was the one who recommended him for it, even though it was a scouting mission. The older man told Ace that it was just a quick trip around an island searching for any marine ships; his fire could easily skim on top of the water now that Marco gave him some tips on controlling it a bit better. This meant he never even had to leave the skiff the ship’s shipwrights had engineered for him.

It was a nice craft, and it ran on the teen’s own fire. It was small enough to not be suspicious, and fast enough that the search and trip around the island would take only an hour or two.

Ace was excited about going off on his own mission even if it was a simple one to everyone else. This would be a bit difficult for Ace having to spread his fire out around him above the water, and not being able to see if he was going to run into anything. Luckily his craft was also very agile and turned quickly.

The teen was determined to do this mission right, and make it back in time for the family to have a large party, as they were ought to do after anyone returned from a mission, big or small. He was going to do this, and he was going to do it so well that maybe he’d get a few more missions to do.

**-this is the last line dammit-**

Ace was smiling as he felt the wind rustling through his hair, for once not caring about whether or not his eyes were showing. The freedom was breathing its way into every part of Ace’s being and he loved every moment of it.

His fire danced around his skiff, flaring out further and further as the winds brushed across his face, a sign that he was getting closer to the shore of the island the old man wanted him to scout. A smile graced his face at the thought of pops entrusting such a mission to himself. It was a privilege the teen was eternally grateful for.

It was nice to sort of see the ocean as well, Marco really was a genius in controlling his flames if he could help Ace fine tune his own control over his fire.

The thought of the man brought a heated flush to his face. The man was definitely drool worthy, his body and his personality made Ace almost swoon. And that kiss…he may have been pretending around the other that he forgot that moment, but he did remember it, quite vividly.

Because of his blindness Ace tended to remember more of the physical touches he received than anything else. Ask him to recall a conversation and it’s a once in ten chance he remembers it, but ask about a physical touch and it’s a one in two chance. So Marco’s kiss just seemed to imprint itself and Ace couldn’t stop thinking about it, even if he put on the air of forgetfulness.

The kiss really made Ace think about his relationship with the first mate. The man was the first to realize he was blind, accepted him, and didn’t even bat an eyelash when Ace told him about his true father. He even helped Ace out with making sure he was always on chore duty with either Izou or Thatch when it came to the tasks that really needed eyesight. The man was doing everything in his power to make Ace comfortable.

And whenever Ace actually took a moment to think about what his feelings for the other pirate might be, that kiss appears in his mind and he is unable to think of anything else…did this mean he had feelings for the first mate? The teen had never felt anything other than friendship for anyone else so he didn’t know what signals he was supposed to look for.

Bah. No use thinking about it. Ace would just ask Marco about it when he arrived back on deck. The man would probably answer his questions. Or he could talk to Izou about it…yeah…talk to Izou first then go confront Marco when he gets his feelings all sorted. Good plan Ace.

Ace’s plotting was slammed to a halt when his fire picked up the shape of a hull. There was a boat about thirty feet to the teen’s right…It was a pretty big boat. Did Ace come across another pirate crew? Didn’t most crews run scared when they saw the Whitebeard sail anywhere near them?

It was a fast moving ship…and headed right for Ace! Did they not see him at all?!!

But Ace realized what it was within seconds after his mental exclamation. This was a huge ship, and very few pirates sailed around in a boat quite that large, and it certainly wasn’t the Moby Dick. It wasn’t a pirate ship at all. It was a naval vessel.

“Pirate on the starboard bow captain!” a loud voice was yelled from up above, and Ace was panicking just a little. He could most likely take the marines but was at a huge disadvantage without any allies with eyes.

“Just one on a small craft! Grab the gun!” a different, gruffer voice shouted out in response, its tone carrying a heavy amount of command.  

Didn’t these marines realize that they had a one in five chance of Ace being a logia user? They were on the Grand Line after all, they had to know that not every pirate was entirely normal. Did they really think a bullet would stop him?

Ace was ready to fight, his fire was curling and lapping at the hull of the ship, for all intents acting like the waves of the ocean. Surprise was a huge benefit to the teen right now, but he knew he could take this marine ship if they honestly thought a gun would stop him. He was going to wait though, wait until they fired first, if just to laugh at them later when they begged for mercy.

Ace never got the chance to even light the large ship on fire. A loud bang resounded throughout the air and the teen screamed as a heat entered into his abdomen, the pain causing him to falter on his feet. The next thing he knew he was cold.

He tried to call his fire, to light these stupid marines up in a glorious blaze to be seen for miles,  but nothing happened. He couldn’t feel his fire at all, he couldn’t feel the ship, he couldn’t feel the constant warmth or companionship that his flames provided. He felt empty. This was worse than sinking in the ocean. There was something far more unnatural about this coldness, this emptiness.

He gasped in pain as he pressed a hand to the small hole in his ab area, trying to stop the bleeding the normal way. But he could feel the sticky wet heat ooze out and run down his fingers and plip plop on the floor of the skiff.

Ace dropped to his knees and cried out as another wave of pain shattered through him from his left shoulder. His brain was trying and failing to process what exactly was happening. He had never felt like this before, so empty and powerless. The teen never even felt like this in the ocean. What did they shoot him with?

“Ahhh, these kairoseki bullets are quite useful. Seems he was a fruit user after all.” The gruff voice from before laughed out and Ace clenched his teeth in an attempt to hold back a scathing retort. No wonder his fire disappeared, they were fucking kairoseki bullets!

Ace’s thoughts fluttered again and he momentarily lost control of his body and ended up falling forward, barely having enough time to catch himself on the side of the skiff. His breath was coming out in pants and he honestly didn’t know what to do. The crew was quite the few nautical miles off so he couldn’t call for help, he certainly wasn’t going to die here, so what should he do now? What other choice was there to do now?

“Ooh, a Whitebeard Pirate, captain. We’d receive quite the reward if we brought this one in, don’t you think?” the first voice was slimy now, slithering its way into Ace’s ear the same way that Teach man from the Moby Dick did. Ace was not going to be captured by the fucking marines, and certainly not if it would give them a reward.

But Ace’s mind wasn’t able to process things too quickly, the wound in his abdomen and his shoulder were distracting him from making any solid plans. He was light headed now, the blood flowing out quickly with little to stop its flow out of the teen’s body.

Ace could feel the unnatural darkness close in on him, similar to the feeling he got before he got a narcoleptic attack, but more sinister in nature. Fuck he was blacking out.

Ace chuckled lightly to himself. The world sure had a funny way of treating him. He finally got a family and now he was going to die. Well at least he got to be happy for a little while. The teen just regretted not being able to watch Luffy become the king of the pirates, or kissing Marco again. That would have made him happy to die, seeing his two favorite people again would have been nice. Oh, and to see Thatch and Izou get together, that would have been perfect, they would have cute kids. The last thing he heard before his mind blanked out completely was the captain talking to the crew.

“Looks like we found ourselves some entertainment, men!”

**TBC**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m looking forward to my mob of pitchforks and torches :)  
> As always feel free to ask me questions ~ I don’t bite~ I promise~


	9. Evil is as Evil does

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prepare your heart....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. This is a day later than I wanted it to be but I think it was for the best. My heart is a bit broken right now, and this was a super epic chapter…little over 10k words…anyone notice how my chapters are getting longer and longer?  
> So. I am completely prepared for the mob that will occur after y’all read this chapter. Totally prepared. Bring it on. I can take it. Just…prepare your heart…  
> In other news, this is also the first chapter I named BEFORE I wrote it~ fun right? All the other titles were completely random and I came up with them when I was posting them XP  
> So this is dedicated to Setsuyume as always, especially for putting up with random scenes I sent to her for editing~ and to InspiringLight for being a dear and to every single person who reviewed cause dammit you people make me happy!!!  
> So enough pitter pattering nonsense~

**SET SAIL!!**

**That Awkward Moment**

_He had always thought the teen was beautiful. His raven locks framing his face, bangs pushed out of his eyes for once, showing off those stunning hazy eyes. The freckles on his cheeks contrasted perfectly with his sun-kissed skin, providing innocence to balance with his maturity. His muscled body shown off with open shirts and low riding shorts held up on slim hips by a vibrant orange belt emblazoned with a large A on the buckle. And that cowboy hat, a bright orange that highlighted the teen’s otherwise mostly dark ensemble, the red beads and two different faces really showed the teen’s inner personality quirks, as well._

_His pale red lips, so kissable, his slight eyebrows, so expressive, and his half-lidded eyes, so desirable. The teen was the perfect definition of alluring. Especially when his face was turned towards his own, shining teeth on display with a world brightening smile, filmed eyes closed in happiness. His body reflecting the rays of the sun and causing him to glow in his obvious emotions._

_He was perfect. ­­_

_He was also currently laying sprawled on his back in the elder’s bed, face flushed, and breaths coming in heavy pants. His chest was rising and falling with a speed that matched the puffs escaping his reddened lips, his hair matted with sweat and clinging to his equally sweaty cheeks. His eyelids were fluttering, showing brief glimpses of the hazy eyes that lay beneath them, hands on either side of his head, fingers curled lightly._

_He was sin personified._

_And Marco was enjoying the view with little regret. Even when the teen let out a light moan and rotated his hips, attempting to find something to rub his obvious boner against, the man felt little shame in watching. The only thing that irked the blonde was the sight of the fire user’s ever present black shorts, hiding the man’s prize._

_A heat touched his skin and Marco smiled as he felt the teen’s fire caress his own bare skin, coaxing him forward to touch its master. Who was the man to deny the flames its desires?_

_So Marco started forward, his feet padding lightly on the wooden floors beneath him. His gaze was set firmly on the flushed teen moaning lightly. His voice was light and airy, yet soaked in desire. The younger’s fire continued to pull at his body, directing him towards the panting youth on his bed._

_Once the phoenix was standing right next to the bed, he reached a hand out and stroked the teen’s red left cheek, smiling as Ace leaned into the touch. Marco was enthralled with this side of the youth. His more submissive side. Not that the teen was submissive, more like open? He was content to receive the blonde’s touch and that’s all that mattered to Marco._

_Marco leaned over Ace, his right hand moving from stroking Ace’s cheek to the mattress, settling right next to the fire user’s left hand. The phoenix put all his weight on that hand as he shifted on to the bed, looming over Ace with his knees on either side of the younger’s hips._

_Ace’s eyes opened in response to Marco’s shift and the man almost lost himself in those beautiful irises, captivated by the sight of them. But the man had a plan, he was going to dishevel the teen, mess him up in a glorious way that would make both of them happy._

_Marco leaned his head down, his lips brushing against Ace’s jaw before he shifted slightly higher to press them firmly to Ace’s own. Not deepening the kiss, but leaving it as a mere press of lips, Marco raised his left hand from its place beside the teen’s head and placed it on the still rising chest of the younger. His fingers fluttered around lightly before reaching their target._

_Marco smirked into the kiss as Ace tried to squirm out of it; apparently his nipples were quite sensitive to touch. Maybe that’s why the kid is always showing off his abdomen? Marco pressed and rolled his fingers around the now pert bud, trying to elicit a different response from the fire user. His desire was answered not a second later when the teen broke away from the kiss and gasped, back arching, trying to get more contact._

_Marco just latched onto the teen’s neck, lapping and sucking at the junction between neck and shoulder, making sure to leave a mark. Ace keened in response, his back arching farther, and his head snapping back against the fluffy pillows of the phoenix’s bed._

_Slowly Marco lowered his hips on to Ace’s, being careful not to crush the teen with his heavier weight. Ace grunted lightly when the man’s full weight was pressed down on him, but distracted himself by wrapping his toned arms around Marco’s neck._

_The blonde lifted his head from sucking on Ace’s neck to enjoy the sight of the teen so flushed and wanting. The hand he had currently working on the teen’s nipple shifted and slid down the nice chest, curving around the hips and settling lightly on the fire fruit user’s lower back. Said user arched again, shocked by the movement, and a moan escaped his pleasantly plump lips._

_Marco didn’t stop to enjoy the sight or the sound this time, just continued on until his hand was gripping at the teen’s firm ass. Said teen ‘eep’ed lightly at the touch.  But Marco soon distracted him with a downward press of his hips, rubbing both of their members together._

_The blonde continued to press and rotate his hips, licking at the shell of the ear of the raven-haired youth and enjoying the little sounds that escaped the teen’s lips._

_Ace was practically a mess. The press of Marco’s hand on his ass, the pressure from the man’s pelvis, and the tongue licking at his ear were all causing an overload to the poor teen’s senses. But Marco didn’t stop. He wanted the teen to be completely unwound, open and bare to the man for him to enjoy fully._

_Marco himself was moaning lowly into the sensitive ear of the younger, enjoying the roll of their hips and the pressure from Ace’s own groin. The man could feel the pleasure rise and rise, his vision fading in and out, and white overtaking his sight._

_He was so close, he could feel the orgasm rushing its way through his body, tightening his muscles, and causing him to speed his hips up. He was ready for this, ready to share it with the teen constantly in his thoughts, and ready to take their relationship to a higher level. He could feel it now, the white heat pushing its way through him and-_

Marco woke with a start, his chest heaving and his breath coming out in heavy pants. His mind was racing and his eyes were darting around his cabin, unable to process the sudden shifts in scenes.  What just happened?

The phoenix pulled himself into a sitting position and looked around. It was his cabin alright, nothing was out of place and he was in his own bed. His breath was slowing, his legs shifting slightly as he attempted to push himself out of bed, and that was when he felt it. Something was between his legs, sticky and warm.

He threw his covers from his body and looked down at his crotch. There was a wet spot. Oh great sea gods above.

Marco slowly moved his hand to his waistband, lifting it suspiciously. The sight of a white sticky mess in his pants caused the blonde to groan and flop back on his bed, laying the back of his hand over his eyes in exasperation.

“Great. Having dirty dreams at my age because my newest brother is eye candy, I’m such a bad person.”

**The Great Tattoo Mystery**

The crew was upset to say the least. They finally get the new kid to join up, and something happens which causes him to hole up in his room all day, he didn’t even come out for dinner. Just about every single family member was upset. They haven’t been able to get to know him due to his prickliness to everyone outside of Marco, Thatch, and Izou. Lots of them were actually mad because of that. What made them so special?

They actually thought that maybe the teen was avoiding them in purpose. Maybe he only joined the crew for Marco, Thatch, and Izou. Maybe he didn’t want anything to do with anyone else. It was a bit worrying for the crew, none of them knowing if their new brother will even want to be their brother. Needless to say there were quite a few restless sleepers that night.

Of course that didn’t stop their hearts from jumping out of their chests when morning came around and a loud yell reverberated around the ship.

“I MISSED DINNER!!!”

Everyone was up and moving, wondering who on earth had yelled, and what was that about missing dinner? No one missed dinner on the ship, the chefs would kill them dead…wait…

There was practically a stampede of crew members all rushing to the galley, not for breakfast or anything normal like that, nope, they were all rushing to see their newest crew member, their newest brother.

The sight that greeted them was not at all what they were expecting.

The new kid, Ace, was slumped over one of the bench tables, bemoaning his missed meals while the first division commander was standing over him, bandages held in his hand. Marco was sliding a hand up and down the dark-haired teen’s back, asking if it stung or anything, while Ace just laid his head in his folded arms and let out soft moans every now and then.

The truly shocking thing was the orange and red fire that had wrapped itself around the first mate. The man’s fire was normally blue, so was this the teen’s flame? They had all gotten rather used to not seeing the younger without his flames flickering at their feet, but to have the fire completely wrap someone up? Not a sight they had ever seen.

It seemed almost as if Marco was leaning into the fire’s touch, even though it was constantly moving. It sort of made the family wonder if maybe Ace would do that to anyone besides Marco? Would it hurt if it was someone else? Was phoenix special because he also had control over a sort of flame?

Of course while the crew was busy worrying about stupid things, Marco was continuing to unwrap the freckled teen’s torso. Why was he all bandaged up anyway? Did he get injured yesterday? Was that why he stayed locked inside his room?

Their silent questions were soon answered after all the bandages fell to the floor, revealing to the room the teen’s back. The sight made them all gasp.

There adorned on that young back was an exact copy of the Whitebeard Jolly Roger. Purple crossbones in the back, with an evil-looking smirking skull in the front graced with the curved white mustache of the captain. It was a large tattoo, and a few members flinched at the thought of being under the Artist’s needle for as long as it must have took to ink that beautiful tattoo.

This was all the men needed to crowd around the first division commander and their newest brother, all of them shouting out welcomes, questions, and general mirth.

The teen seemed to be caught completely off guard by their friendliness; he certainly looked like it even if his bangs were covering his eyes. The kid had quite the expressive face, it was fantastic.

The whole crew seemed content to spend the whole day in the galley, questioning their new brother and getting to know him in a way they couldn’t before. And Marco seemed just fine with letting them. Ace on the other hand was overwhelmed and stayed quiet for a while before he laughed at someone’s joke and gave in to communicating with everyone else.

“Ya know what Ace?” one of the division commanders, Rakuyo, spoke out, pulling everyone’s attention to him as Ace turned to answer him.

“Nah, what’s up?”

“Aren’t you gonna get cold like that? I mean, with pop’s mark on your back you can almost never wear a shirt…you okay like that? I mean at least Marco’s is on his chest so he can wear that jacket around, there is almost nothing you could do to protect yourself from the elements…” he sounded really worried and a lot of the others nodded along with what he was saying. They had to look out for their youngest after all.

To their surprise Ace just laughed, his ex-first mate joining in. It was the first time they had seen the teen truly let go and laugh his ass off…his ex-crew mate too for that matter…

“Nah. The Mera Mera no Mi helps me reregulate my body temperature. I am a lot warmer than other people, in fact. Obviously the heat doesn’t bother me either so there is that too.” Ace’s smile was the widest it had ever been since the teen arrived on the Moby Dick and it immediately made the other’s smile as well.

“He was like that before he ate the fruit too though, ain’t that right, Ace?” his ex-first mate, Ankana if they remembered right, laughed out, his statement actually bringing a red flush to the black-haired teen’s cheeks.

“Oh? A bit of a show off are ya?” Haruta laughed out, nudging Ace lightly in his abdomen with her elbow. Ace just sort of brushed her off.

“Nope. One of my friends from my home island can’t put on muscle for the life of him. He was always jealous that I could, so what kind of friend would I be if I didn’t rub it in his face?” Ace smirked, which was really funny to look at because of the flush on the teen’s face, but the words made a lot of the members pause. It was only for a moment though, as soon they were all laughing their asses off.

This kid was going to fit in with the family just fine.

**The Other Men**

“Hey Ace.” Thatch whispered out in the middle of the mess hall.

The teen sitting across from him shoveling food into his mouth paused and lifted his head, giving off the air that he was looking at the chef. He was paying attention, just half distracted by Marco sitting on his right, Haruta pestering him on his left, and Izou sitting next to Thatch. Luckily they all quieted at Thatch’s quiet voice.

In fact they were all looking at Thatch, the man was never quiet, so the whisper surprised just about everyone who heard him, aka the whole damn room. Ace was a little worried. The family members have all been welcoming and unintrusive; even Thatch and Haruta had been accepting of his boundaries, was that about to change?

“I was just curious…I mean, you said you didn’t wanna tell us, but I figured…I mean now that we are family…I just wanted, well, I was wondering-” the man was cut off from his rambling by a smack to the head from Izou.

“Just get on with it, you oaf.” His voice was harsh, but Ace could hear the undercurrents of care the okama felt for the chef. It was still sweet, but the teen was more worried about what question could possibly cause Thatch to stutter and hesitate this much. The man was nothing if not blunt.

“The tattoo on your shoulder,” Ace froze completely, his fire wrapping around his person tightly and no longer fluttering amongst his crewmates’ feet, “you said it wasn’t misspelled…so what does it mean?”

Ace breath sped up a little as Thatch finished his question. He figured one of them would ask eventually, hell he was surprised it took them this long to ask, didn’t mean Ace was any more ready to talk about his tribute to his brother.

He wrapped his right hand around his tattoo, shifting his head so his bangs covered all of his face and not just his eyes. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to tell them what it meant; he had just never spoken about it before. Not even the Spade Pirates knew, even Ankana who went with him to ensure that it was tattooed correctly didn’t know the significant meaning behind it. The only one who would know on sight what it meant would be Luffy. Ace just wasn’t sure if he wanted to keep it that way or let others in on his pain.

Marco must have noticed Ace’s reluctance because he was suddenly telling Thatch to mind his own damn business, and that the teen didn’t have to tell them anything. The Flame Fruit user was a bit shocked, and flattered, at the man’s immediate defense, but he didn’t want Marco to be mad at Thatch over something like his tattoo.

“It’s fine, Marco.” Ace spoke quietly, his head lifting once more, showing all but his eyes again like usual. He had to start trusting these people at some point right? He was already their brother, and he took the old man’s mark, too late to rethink joining the crew. Not that he would.

“Ace…you don’t have to tell us anything you don’t want to. You’re still our brother.” Izou spoke softly, his hand reaching out to cover the teen’s. His warmth was comforting and made Ace smile slightly, the man really did care and it made the teen really happy to feel it so clearly from him. The amount of people that cared about him now almost made him want to cry. Sabo would be so happy for him.

“No, it’s alright, Izou. It’s just…well I’ve never told anyone about it…not even…” Ace cut himself off and shifted his head so it seemed like he was looking over at his ex-first mate, his fire directing him easily. The others sort of shuffled at that. They all thought the Spade Pirates were rather close, closer than most crews anyway, so the thought that there was something Ace kept from them made the family more than a little nervous.

“Honestly Ace, I didn’t mean to put you in such a tough place. Don’t worry about it, really.” Thatch spoke again, his voice louder than it was earlier. He sounded rather horrible, almost as if he was blaming himself for something. Ace didn’t want that. Thatch shouldn’t be sad, that just wasn’t him.

“No, really, it’s okay. Someone should know anyway, otherwise it kinda defeats the purpose.” Ace’s voice was stronger now, he was going to tell them, they were family now too, they should know.

Unfortunately Ace felt a bit of unease in the air, his fire was flicking amongst his newer family, caressing their legs lightly and trying to comfort them the best way he knew how. He really needed to tell them, they deserved his honesty.

“It’s-well, it’s a bit hard to explain, but it’s kind of a tribute?” Ace spoke a bit hesitantly, trying to come up with the words to describe it properly.

“A tribute?” Haruta asked, scooting closer to Ace so their thighs touched, trying to offer some extra support to the teen.

“Yeah, you guys aren’t my only family-”

“Well yeah, we figured as much, we all come from somewhere after all.” Jiru interjected, his voice coated in humor. He just started to laugh when Vista smacked him upside the head. Well, it wasn’t a surprise that they were trying to make the situation more light-hearted. These guys just weren’t meant for seriousness sometimes.

“I meant you guys aren’t my only brothers that I’m not related to by blood.” There was complete silence after that. No one was speaking, and even their breathing was quiet. Did he shock them that much? It wasn’t that surprising was it?

“We aren’t?” Fossa spoke out, moving from his place at the back of the galley to move closer to the teen. They seemed really interested now, more so than when Thatch brought it up in the first place.

“Yeah.” Ace smiled a genuinely happy smile; his brothers meant the world to him. “I have two brothers, met them in my home town back east. Sabo is my age; we don’t know which of us is older so I can’t say if he’s my elder or my younger brother. And Luffy is three years younger than us.”

The others were shocked. Ace was generally a happy guy but none of them had ever seen him this happy. It, it was a nice sight.

“So what does that have to do with the misspelling of your name?” Thatch spoke out loud, his curiosity practically killing him at this point. But when the teen’s face darkened he wished he hadn’t opened his big mouth. Dammit all.

“Luffy is still back at our home island…Sabo…Sabo died…” several sharp intakes of breaths were heard around the room, “when I was ten…he…he was only ten…this…this is how I-” Ace cut himself off, gripping his tattooed arm even tighter as his head tilted down and tears started to gather in his eyes.

“It’s how you remember him isn’t it?” Marco spoke quietly, wrapping his arm around the teen. Haruta did the same, Izou rubbed his hand lightly, and Thatch brushed their feet together. The rest of the family sort of closed in on them at that point, all trying to comfort their obviously distressed younger brother.

“Yeah, it was his jolly roger. He died under it…it makes it so I can carry his dream on for him, because he never got to.” Ace smiled again, his eyes drying up. Sabo’s death was horrible, and it would probably always haunt him, but the teen was sure his brother wouldn’t want him to be so down about it. Besides, he has even more family members now, more people who care about him. Nothing to be truly upset about.

“So…who thinks they can beat me in a drinking contest?”

**Feather Head?**

“Hey! Bird brain!” Thatch yelled across the deck, startling Ace who was talking to Marco. His fire responded awkwardly and started to heat and the teen had to put his attention into lowering the flame’s temperature back down to a bearable level for people not made of flames.

“Call me that again, Thatch! This time Izou won’t be around to stop me!” Wow. Ace had never heard Marco react so heatedly to something like he just did to the chef. What was with all the bird insults anyway?

“I’d like to see you try, you vain peacock!!” Thatch was daring, damn. A sudden shift in air pressure caused Ace to blink rapidly, trying to dislodge the strands of hair that fluttered into them with the swoosh of wind. His fire was left on deck by itself from where it was once wrapped around the Marco’s legs. Huh, he sure moves fast.

“I’m going to kill you, Thatch! Friendship be damned!” Marco shouted out, his voice harsh but with light undertones of teasing, very light undertones. Ace was probably the only one who caught onto that…oh well. Let people think the man was going to kill Thatch, makes things more entertaining. But that was another bird related insult…what was with the chef and bird insults?

“Catch me if you can, duck butt!!” That was the third bird insult Thatch used, something had to be going on with that. And why did Marco get so mad about it? Birds were some of the smartest creatures in the world after all.

It was really bothering Ace. Sure he called Luffy names sometimes when he was teasing him, but he never kept to a certain theme of insults. Why was Thatch so focused on bird jokes? There had to be some sort of connection there, but who to ask.

The name hit Ace like an anchor to the face. Izou. Izou would know, especially when Marco just mentioned something about the okama stopping the man from killing Thatch earlier. Yes, the Great Bird Name Mystery would start with Izou.

Ace completely ignored the yells across the deck of Marco most likely strangling Thatch, and instead wandered off to try and find his okama friend. He normally wasn’t hard to find, either in his room, the galley, or up in the crow’s nest. Room first, galley second, and crow’s nest last.

Luckily Ace didn’t have to go anywhere else past the man’s room. He was there, laying on his bed, humming nonsensical songs. He actually seemed really glad to see Ace, maybe he was a bit more lonely now that he was ignoring Thatch every chance he got.

“Ace! What brings you here? Finally want me to give you that make-over I promised?” yeah, definitely a bit lonely. Izou hasn’t brought up that make-over offer since the horrible incident with Haruta. Reminder to Ace, spend some time with the okama after solving the Great Bird Name Mystery.

“Ah, no. Actually I had a question.” Ace spoke out, sending his fire to caress at the other’s kimono, hoping to show his affection that way. He walked into the room and sat next to Izou on the bed, allowing his fire to wrap itself around the both of them.

“Sure, what’s up?”

“Well…Thatch started to yell out insults to Marco on deck.” Ace started out, and Izou snorted. Obviously the man was well aware of the chef’s insult hurling at the first mate.

“Yeah, he tends to do that when he’s bored. What about it?” The man sounded genuinely curious. Maybe Ace was making a big deal out of nothing? Maybe Thatch just really liked to use bird insults?

“Uh, well I noticed all of the insults were related to birds in some way. I was wondering why he did that, is all.” It was silent for a moment and Ace wondered briefly if maybe he said something wrong, but then the okama started to laugh. Not the odd giggle thing he normally did, but full blown laughter from the pit of his stomach.

“Guess I was making something big out of nothing after all. Sorry bout wasting your time, Izou.” Damn. Ace really thought he was onto something good. Oh well, back to his chores for the day.

The teen was halfway up when Izou grabbed onto his wrist, laughs still escaping his mouth, except it sounded as if the man was trying to control it. So Ace sat back down and waited until the okama was in a proper place to start speaking.

“Sorry. Just forgot you didn’t know.” What? Ace didn’t know what? Were they hiding something from him?

“Don’t know what?”

“No, it’s not my place to say, but there is a reason why Thatch prefers bird insults when it comes to Marco. Don’t worry too much about it. Nothing on this ship stays secret for long anyway.”

Well that didn’t help Ace out at all. Dammit. Now who to ask? If Izou wouldn’t tell him, then who would?

A booming shout from up above startled both men. It was loud, and it shook the ship. Both Izou and Ace straightened at the sound. That was the old man. Ooh, someone was going to get it!

The two hopped up immediately, practically forgetting about their previous conversation to run up to the deck and see who was about to get yelled at by the old man. They were always really entertaining for anyone present on deck. Which is why they were heading up there so fast.

Many other family members who were in their rooms joined Izou and Ace in their race to the deck, they all wanted to see the spectacle. And Ace didn’t blame them for that at all, he was pretty sure the situations would be way more entertaining if he could add the sight to the sound. But the sound was pretty damn good, so the teen had no complaints.

Despite the distraction caused by the old man, Ace was still incredibly curious as to why Thatch would use bird themed insults, and he would one day find out why he preferred such insults. But for now, in light of the brewing tongue-lashing on deck, the Great Bird Names Mystery could wait another day.

**Papa Pirate**

Ace didn’t want to leave his room. Every time he did it felt like there was something pressing down on him. An emotion he couldn’t explain would weigh on his chest, his shoulders, and his back. It was heavy and it hurt.

This was the second day he spent lying in his bed, his fire barely fluttering past his skin. He felt lifeless. He didn’t want to move, he didn’t want to sleep, he didn’t want to do anything, and he had no idea why. It was almost as if a sudden tidal wave of emotions came at him one day on deck. Now he can’t bring himself to leave the somewhat hard bed.

It was a surprise that no one had come to see him yet. He had expected Thatch, Marco, or Izou to be pounding on his door as soon as he stayed cooped up for even an hour. He was rather shocked they hadn’t tried to come pull him out.

His fire flickered at the door just as someone pounded on it. There they were.

“Ace? You in there?”

Oh, it was Thatch. What a surprise.

He turned over on to his side, his front facing the door where his fire was lapping at it. He knew he should go open it, and if not then he should speak out, but he simply couldn’t find the will to do so.

His lids were half lidded, face slack in apathy, his body sprawled out on his bed, completely unmoving. His fire danced around the room, more animated than he has been.

“Ace?!”

Why was Thatch yelling? He was fine, he could hear the man just fine. Don’t yell Thatch, you’ll make everything start moving again. Ace didn’t want things to start moving again, the stillness was safe, he understood the unmoving, the mobile things were difficult and changing.

A sudden cough forced its way through Ace’s throat, it was hard to breath now, was that smoke? His coughing started to speed up and his eyes were watering. Something was burning, he needed to move, but he still couldn’t bring himself to move. The pressure was just too much.

A crash startled him but didn’t stop him from coughing his lungs out. Warm arms wrapped around him and lifted him.

Ace let out a gasp and gripped onto his rescuer’s shirt. A chef jacket. Thatch was carrying him. He broke down the door. What was going on? He was light-headed, and he didn’t know where his fire was. Why couldn’t he feel his fire.

Unexpectedly a breeze blew across his face, his rather heated face. Did Thatch bring him to the deck? Was there something wrong with his room? Was it the sudden onset of smoke? Oh god. Did he light something on fire? Was the ship in danger?

The teen’s breath started speeding up, his hands gripped harder into Thatch’s jacket. He lit the ship on fire, they were going to kick him out. He was going to be alone again. His head started to pound, it ached in a way it never had before. Great sea gods above, what was happening to him?!

“Ace?! Ace?! Can you hear me?! Ace!” Thatch’s voice was going in and out, sometimes ear shatteringly loud, and sometimes so quiet the teen could barely make it out. His head started to loll and sweat started pouring. Was he going to die? Well that was the least he could do after setting their ship on fire.

A sudden blow hit his cheek and a deep breath of air entered his lips and expanded his lungs. His fire seemed to suddenly be there, wrapping around Thatch, and a second person, someone who was larger than normal humans.

His awareness was slowly coming back, but his limbs still felt numb. The weight was still pushing on him, lighter than before but still heavy. His breathing was back to normal now. He was just aware enough to feel himself changing hands; the new person holding him was much larger than Thatch, larger than Marco even. That didn’t really help him figure out who it was though; a lot of the people on the Moby Dick were abnormally large.

But the man, whoever he was, made him feel lighter, less pressured. He gave of a soothing sort of air, Ace was almost lulled to sleep by the man’s deep breaths and the soothing sound of his rhythmic heartbeat.

The man was moving him, across the deck, up some stairs, across a different deck. Ace was up on the upper deck now, but no one was ever on the upper deck, just the old man and a commander or two.

But the teen didn’t want to think about that. He just wanted to enjoy the comforting movement of the man and the sea. He just wanted to keep the peace in his mind a little longer.

A long time passed. At least it felt like it was a long time. Ace wasn’t entirely sure. He was sprawled across the man who carried him up to the upper deck. He was in a chair, and Ace was lying in his lap. There was nothing suggestive about it, it was comforting, soothing. As time passed the teen was feeling lighter and lighter, the weight that was pressing on him practically dissipated.

He started to move slightly, his body twitching every now and then, a relieving thing to feel after the last few days of nothingness. His fire was wrapping around the other man’s legs, hugging them slightly in thanks.

“My son, are you awake?” a gruff voice tickled Ace’s ears and he froze.

He was in Whitebeard’s lap. The strongest man in the world was holding him, on his lap, and providing comfort Ace didn’t even know he needed. Oh god, he was so pathetic.

“My son, what is wrong? Why did you hide yourself for so long? Why did you light your door on fire?” the old man’s voice was soft, but still gruff and it helped put Ace slightly at ease. Did he really light his door on fire?

“I-I’m not…” Ace didn’t know what to say, he still had no idea why that weight settled on him, why he couldn’t bring himself to move. It wasn’t an overall pleasant experience, one he never wanted to experience again.

“It’s alright if you can’t explain it. Everyone just wanted to know that you are okay.” His voice was kind and Ace was upset that it was. Why was he being kind to him? He had almost killed his new family!

“I couldn’t bring myself to leave.” Ace whispered, voice cracking lightly as his fire reached around to surround them both. “It was like a weight had settled on me, I couldn’t move and I didn’t know why.”

“Gurarara.” The man’s laugh was not at all expected, even if it was quiet and not its usual booming tone. “Did you think that maybe it was because you were craving some attention?”

“What?” Ace was confused, extremely so. His head whipped up almost out of the teen’s control but luckily he was able to keep his hair covering his eyes. What did he mean attention?

“Sometimes the body knows what the mind needs more than the mind.” What was he trying to say?

“Wha-”

“Your body shut down like that because you needed some companionship. The body, especially a logia’s body, has a sort of deep connection with the mind that others can’t understand. Yours shut you down because you were denying it a fatherly connection.”

“That’s not-”

“My son, you have spent time with just about everyone on this ship except for me. Spend the rest of the day with me, my son. You will feel much better I am sure.” The man’s voice was still soothing. What did Ace have to lose anyway? The man was his…father now, he should get to know him.

“I’d like that…pops.”

**You + Me = Evil**

“ACEACEACEACEACEACEACEACEACEACEACEACE!!!” was yelled across the deck and everyone winced as the only female commander ran from one side of the deck towards the youngest member of the crew.

Said teen’s head snapped into the direction of the running female, fire wrapping around his body in preparation for impact. And sure enough not a second later the girl hit Ace full force, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his narrow waist.

“What’s up, shorty?” the fire wielder laughed out, his hands and fire curling around the smaller body to keep her from falling on her butt. That would be embarrassing for her.

“We need to talk…” Haruta whispered into his ear, her head snapping in different directions as she made sure no one was paying too close attention to them; which was kind of impossible considering she just ran full speed across deck to tackle him.

“Sure, sure. Come on, let’s go to my room.” Ace laughed out, still holding on to the slighter frame as his fire spread out onto the floor, leading the teen subtly.

The trip, which should have taken quite a while, was seemed to have shortened slightly as Haruta filled the normal silence with a bit of senseless babble. The girl was attempting to talk Ace’s ear off, at least that what it appeared to be. But really she was just trying to get people uninterested in what they were going to do.

When they reached the door to Ace’s personal room, Haruta released the teen and turned, opening the door herself and pulling the younger with her as she stepped in. Ace stumbled lightly as she did so, not expecting the girl to be so forward with wanting to get the fire user alone.

Once inside the room, Haruta closed the door and, surprisingly, locked it behind her. Whatever they were about to talk about she obviously didn’t want to chance anyone else over hearing them. That meant one of two things, either they were going to talk about the Thatch-Izou situation, or they were going to plan out a prank. Ace was leaning toward the latter after feeling the smile on the girl’s face.

She really did get used to the teen’s overly affectionate fire, and like the old man, seemed to treat the flames as an extension of him. It was nice to not have people not walk over and through them, disregarding them entirely.

“I have an idea.” Haruta spoke the words as if they were the solution to all the world’s problems, almost like the words were going to change something drastically. Definitely a prank then.

“Oh? Do share.” Ace almost purred out as he swung an arm around her shoulders, much like Marco was ought to do to himself. The teen may have been younger than everyone on the Moby Dick, but he was still an older brother, and he certainly knew how to act like one towards Haruta without insulting her. Especially since she was older than Ace was.

“It’s a prank-”

“Called it!”

“Shush.” Haruta glared at the younger, but Ace just ignored the look, half because he couldn’t see it and half because he knew the female didn’t mean it in a bad way. Ace smiled brightly at the other and gestured slightly with his head, clearly telling Haruta to continue talking even though he didn’t speak a single word.

“Well, it’s a sort of prank. More like a favor than anything.” Ace was confused now, Haruta never considered a prank a favor, even if it was in retaliation for one of the other members. What on earth could she have thought of that would be more of a favor?

Seeing the other’s confused look, Haruta continued on with her explanation, speaking swiftly but still slowly enough so that Ace could comprehend the words she was speaking.

“It’s a prank on Thatch, but it is also a favor for Izou. You know how Thatch always wears those blasted chef jackets?” at Ace’s nod she continued on, her tone changing in pitch as her excitement shown through more and more.

“Well I remember one of our talks where Izou was complaing about those chef jackets, and how they didn’t do the man any justice, and how nice it would be to see the man’s bare chest! Kind of like how Marco’s chest is always on display! Something about the first mate being the wrong kind of eye candy, or something.” Haruta was panting lightly as she took in a huge breath, having barely done so during her not quite rant-y rant. Ace took advantage of the pause to input his own thoughts.

“I know what you’re saying, Izou talks about how unfair it is all the time, but where are you going with this?” Ace spoke lightly, walking over to his bed and sitting down, allowing his fire to pool around him, almost like a nest.

Haruta snorted lightly at the teen before she sat down on the bed next to him, cuddling a little close to fight off the slight chill of the lower deck. The teen was always warm and it was a bit unfair that he could walk around with barely any clothes on and still retain his body heat. Completely unfair, but also completely beside the point.

“We,” Haruta started, glancing at Ace to gauge his reaction, “are going to steal all of Thatch’s chef jackets! He won’t have anything to wear and will be forced to walk around deck shirtless! Like Izou wants him to!”

-minor break-

It was fun for the two troublemakers; being able to sneak around the Moby Dick like they were in pitch blackness.  The only thing that helped them along the way was Ace’s fire, guiding them through all the twists and turns. Haruta commented a few times how nifty it was that Ace could see through the flames he extended from his body. It was a surprise she hadn’t put the clues together yet considering she was the commander of the intelligence division, but Ace wasn’t going to question his luck.

They were currently in the process of trying to successfully sneak back into Ace’s room, their arms laden with several identical chef jackets. Sneaking into Thatch’s room was simple, the man never locked it, and his wardrobe was right next to the door. It was as if the sea gods were smiling down on them.

When they reached Ace’s door, they entered quickly, bodies moving faster than they had in a while. They did not want to test their luck limits right now. They quickly shoved all the tops under the bed before turning to face each other. Not a single word was spoken as Ace lay down in his bed and as Haruta quietly left Ace’s room to head to her own. Tomorrow was going to be a great day.

The next day dawned much like any other day did. With Marco waking up first and tending to the part of his position that required more silence than normal. And upon completing those tasks, aka paperwork, the man started his rounds, waking all the division commanders before stopping in to see pops.

The commanders woke up rather easily, and all was swell and dandy. Even the other members were starting to rouse, all intent on getting to the galley and drinking the life giving elixir of coffee. The usualness didn’t truly change until a loud frustrated shout echoed across the Moby Dick.

Everyone’s heads shot up at that, all rather alarmed as to why someone would shout like that so early in the morning. Ace and Haruta who were seated across from Izou both snickered softly at it though, the only two completely unperturbed by the shout. Izou was immediately suspicious.

“Alright, you two, what did you do?” He questioned them, his tone leaving no allowance for any tall tales they might have come up with.

“No worries, Izou.” Haruta spoke first, her voice coated in humor.

“Yeah, don’t worry, you’ll enjoy it.” Ace responded, his fire wrapping around the okama’s kimono-clad shoulders, offering the man some brief comfort.

Before Izou could even think about questioning the two again, the galley door slammed open, and the man’s mouth dried up. There in the door was Thatch. With no shirt on. Bless the two devils across from him. Bless them with happiness, and wealth, and power, fuck they were angels.

The chef was truly breath-taking when shirtless. His normally hidden muscles rippled with every breath he took, and Izou had to bite his lip to keep back the moan. He might be pissed at Thatch right now, but the man was still his every wet dream personified.

“Who. Stole. My. Shirts.” Thatch bit out, his anger almost palatable to every person present. Even Marco could feel his absolute disdain right now. Serves him right anyway.

Ace and Haruta would have easily gotten away with their prank, rather successfully too. Except the chef’s room-filling anger at the loss of the shirts they kidnapped made them laugh out loud. Thatch’s head snapped to them at the sound of their laughs and his eyes narrowed.

“You little brats!” the man yelled loudly, pretty much a battle cry really, as he shot after the two. Both of who were already up and making their way to the back door to the galley, everyone else laughing at their shenanigans.

Marco smirked and turned to Izou, smirk morphing into a smile at the younger man’s glazed eyes and the drool hanging from his mouth. Those two obviously pulled this prank to cheer him up. No doubt about that.

“Quite something aren’t they?” Marco questioned, smiling when Izou’s zombie face barely moved from watching Thatch run around the galley, chasing the two pranksters.

“Mmhmm, he certainly is.”

**You are the Reason Why I Drink**

Izou was in the crow’s nest again, like he was just about every night even when he didn’t have watch. There was something about being so high up that just calmed the okama, gave him time to think things through.

Tonight’s thought was much like every other night’s thought, Thatch. The man grated on his every nerve, even made fun of him a few times for wearing flowery kimonos and make-up. But something about the red-head just did it for Izou. He was funny, protective, good-looking, and kind. He had the patience of a saint and knew how to have fun. The man was everything Izou never knew he wanted in a man.

And he told him to piss off. The thought brought tears to his eyes just about every time he thought about it. But it was the right thing for him to do. Thatch knew about Izou’s feelings, hell the whole damn crew knew about Izou’s feelings, but the man never did anything about it. He in fact went out of his way to avoid the okama, to ignore him even when he was right there. He’d rather be back to how it was before anyone found out he had feelings for the stupid chef. At least then the man wouldn’t have become so unintentionally cruel.

It was why Izou was currently hanging on to a half empty bottle of sake. He really needed the liquid pick me up, even though he normally only drank the stuff during parties. He needed to forget his life for just a little bit, and the extra strong sake he grabbed was just the right thing to do it for him.

Izou took another swig of the bottle and looked up, enjoying the view of the stars twinkling down on him. Another thing he wished Ace could see. It wasn’t fair for the kid. He was so young, so vibrant, brought down by some weird disease that stole his eyesight. Life was so unfair.

“I wish I could become a star.” He sighed out, eyes closing to enjoy the ocean breeze through his hair, cooling the heated flush from the sake.

“But then you’d leave us behind.”

The other voice startled Izou something fierce, and he almost dropped the sake bottle. Luckily his dexterity was above average even when he was slightly tipsy. Unfortunately his brain was a little slower from the drink so he couldn’t exactly process **who** spoke.

He whipped around angrily, completely prepared to give whoever it was a tongue lashing like they never had before. But he froze when the person was revealed to be the very man he was cursing in his head. Fucking Thatch.

“What do you care?” Izou hissed out, turning back around to lean on the crow’s nest railing. He didn’t want to talk to the asshole, just like he hasn’t for the last few weeks. Even if it was harder to keep his resolve with the sexy man standing next to him, and talking with that sensual voice of his. Fuck. And now that he knew what body the man was hiding. The world wasn’t goddamn fair.

“I do care.” Thatch spoke softly, his hand reaching out and being laid on Izou’s tense shoulder. The touch caused a shudder to race itself down the smaller man’s back. God, even when he was mad at the chef, he still was able to elicit such responses from him. He was such a fucking asshole, touching Izou like they were close. The fuck with this. Izou slapped the hand away.

“No you don’t! If you cared you wouldn’t have ignored me for so many months! You wouldn’t have pretended like you didn’t know! You would have been a little more sympathetic!” Izou yelled out, whipping around to glare at the red-head. The man looked so shocked at Izou’s outburst, but the okama couldn’t bring himself to care. He was done with letting this man dictate his life.

Izou was breathing heavy, tears welling up in his eyes. He was so tired of this. He didn’t want to feel like this about Thatch anymore. He was just so done with this. He needed the chef to leave him alone, he needed time to get over his feelings, without the red-head around.

“Just-just leave me alone, Thatch. I can’t do this anymore. Go away. Stop trying to talk to me. I need to get over you, so stop trying to hang around me like this. Just leave me alone.” Izou’s voice was so defeated, he was just so tired of the man just showing up and making his emotions go all sideways.

Izou closed his eyes and covered them with his hand. He wanted to cry, but he had too much pride to do that in front of the man he had feelings for. He didn’t want to say love because that would hurt him even more when he would have to watch him walk away. But despite his pride he couldn’t hold back the sobs wracking through his body. He could just try and stay as silent as possible and hope Thatch would get the picture and go away.

He did not expect the large arms that wrapped around his shoulders. He did not expect to be pulled into a well-muscled chest. And he definitely didn’t expect a large hand to press his head into the broad shoulder. And the heavenly scent of man that drifted into his nose just made him sigh and release some of the tears he was holding back.

He stayed like that for a long while. Crying into the man’s broad chest, holding on to him for dear life, at least he would have this moment when the man started to avoid him again. Izou tried to detach himself from Thatch’s chest, to get the awkward moments out of the way, but the man wouldn’t let him go.

“Th-Thatch…” Izou whispered out, afraid the man might do something monumentally stupid.

“I do care about you, Izou.” The okama sucked in a breath, that was the first time Thatch had used his first name in quite some time. “I just-this is hard for me to adjust to, I need some time okay? Can you, can you stop ignoring me and let me think this over? Please?”

Izou’s lip trembled at the man’s words. He needed to stop giving Izou false hope. Thatch loved women, so why was he even considering an okama? Why, why was he lifting Izou’s heart this way?

Thatch’s arms tightened around Izou, and the man just let out a happy sigh, his own arms winding their way around the bigger man. Just this once. He would give Thatch the benefit of the doubt. He’d stop avoiding him, give him time to think about what it would be like to be with a man. Just this one time.

“Okay…”

**Lips like Candy**

There were a lot of things Marco was expecting when the teen came out of the Artist’s room. Plenty of scenarios he had imagined. Ace launching himself at Marco was not one of them. Which was why the blonde was caught completely off guard and fell over; the teen’s sudden weight surprised him something fierce.

It would have been fine, Marco could have laughed it off, make it out to be something funny rather than dangerous. But then he felt it. Ace’s lips. On his own. Someone must really love him right now.

Marco wasn’t sure how to respond at first, how **does** one respond to their newest, and really adorable, younger brother kissing them? Well, the first thing the phoenix thought of was to take advantage of it. Who knew when he’d get the chance to do something like this, the whole kissing of the teen, again.  So like any good pirate would do, he listened to his instinct and opened his mouth.

He flicked his tongue out, the drive to taste the teen rearing something fierce. Great sea gods above, Ace was so sweet. Like the candies Izou liked to buy from town every now and then. It was a pleasant sweetness, not overpowering and with a nice undercurrent of char. Well, Ace was made of fire, Marco just didn’t think he would taste like it.

Marco tried not to move his tongue too much, restraining himself to just lapping at the teen’s lovely lips and not shoving his tongue into that inviting moist cavern. At least not until he had some sign that the teen wasn’t going to start freaking out about it.

The sign he was waiting for came sooner than he figured it would, in the form of the teen’s animated fire. It wrapped around the both of them, even meshing with his own fire, that sprang from his body in response to being injured. God the flames were simply intoxicating, the teen’s fire should be banned, at least from touching his own fire. Damn.

Ace even went as far as to wrap his arms around Marco’s shoulders, pressing that gorgeous muscled body to his own. The teen should be banned. He was just so sensual and it wasn’t right at all especially when the teen didn’t even seem to notice that he was. That was so unfair.

The moan Ace let out at the blending of their flames lit up something inside of Marco, his desire or his patience he wasn’t sure. All Marco knew at this moment was that he needed more. So he took advantage of the teen’s moan and shoved his tongue into the other’s awaiting cavern.

Oh god, the teen was so warm, so nice. He felt perfect molded to Marco’s body as he is. This is where Ace belongs, pressed up to Marco and pliant to his motions. The teen’s mouth was silky, and fantastic. Marco was entirely too happy to be laying here on the deck kissing the younger until they are a mussed mess.

The teen wasn’t very skilled at kissing, but that just sent a thrill through the phoenix. That meant he was untouched. For some reason that just super charged Marco’s desire for the other. He wanted to teach the younger everything. Wanted to help him carve his way into a pleasure he had never felt before. And he wanted to keep the teen as his. His to pleasure, his to care for, his to love, just all his.

Fuck. Marco wasn’t in love with the kid. But he could see himself falling for the other. He could see them together as a couple, and that scared him just a little, but thrilled him even more.

He stopped trying to analyze things when their perspective fires meshed together again, tighter this time than before. Marco definitely felt light headed now. He understood how the teen felt that first time their fires melded together, it really was quite intoxicating.

More so was the teen’s next moan, especially when Marco could feel the vibrations in his wandering tongue. The moan even spurred him to continue on, lifting his hand and tangling it in Ace’s slightly long dark locks of hair. He tugged on them lightly, trying to show his appreciation, he didn’t know how Ace interpreted it.

Marco was entirely too content to keep on kissing the sinful teen on top of him, probably would have wasted the whole day away if he could. The only problem was the audience, the audience neither of them noticed until it cleared its throat.

“I’m glad y’all have an attraction for each other, but the deck is not the place for y’all to discover the reaches of it. Especially you, first mate.” Marco completely forgot about Uchoraji. Dammit. So much for his ability to always know about his surroundings. Fuck the teen just distracted him so easily.

Marco was rather disappointed when Ace lifted himself from lying flat on Marco’s chest. The teen’s lovely flushed face practically made up for it though. He was mouth-wateringly beautiful with a blush on his face. That should be banned too. Hell all of the teen’s quirks could be banned dammit. Fuck, his head was not in the right place at all. He needed to refocus.

So of course Marco lifted himself, which turned out to be quite redundant as it slid Ace from sitting on his diaphragm, the teen was now straight on his crotch. Which was rather hard at the moment because he had a siren kissing him not moments ago. Someone must hate him. He angered some deity and now they were making his life hell. Fuck. 

Adding the fire using teen’s warm hands on his chest made Marco very keen to get out of his current position. And that over rode his more logical side of his thoughts. Moving more seemed like a great idea at the moment, but not when that delectably tight ass rubbed over his hard member. Even more so when the teen slid down a little more and Ace’s rigid member was rubbing against his own. This was going to fuel his dreams for the next week at least. Fuck.

Marco gave up trying to get out from under the teen and just froze. Better not move than cause another incident, right? Of course the view made it a bit more bearable. Ace was even more red now than he was after the kiss. The phoenix didn’t even think that was possible, but here the teen was, all flushed and beautiful. Nothing would ever match up to how gorgeous the other was at this moment; the man would never find anyone as attractive as he found Ace. He was screwed.

“Oh my god! MY EYES!” Dammit Thatch.

**TBC**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAHAHAHAHA okay who hates me now? Y’all expected a continuation of chapter 8 didn’t you?!! MUAHAHAHAHAHA I’ll admit this was all Setsu’s idea and I thought it was fabulous~   
> The title to this chapter is actually a salute to us~ XP   
> Don’t worry the next chapter will be the continuation~ no trolling~ XD also the bird insults in Feather Head? Were originally Setsu’s ideas, I just borrowed them~   
> Feel free to yell at me, question me, hate on me, and what not, trust me I am definitely prepared~ XD  
> Till next time y’all~


	10. So that happened...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No comment >.>

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay. We are not going to talk about how long this took me, nor are we going to mention that it’s way longer than I thought it would be (actually had to split the original plan cause it would be too long)~   
> So this is completely dedicated to InspiringLight because I forgot to respond to her letter for like 3 days…and this seems like a great way to make up for that (even though I responded this morning) and of course to Setsuyume for being an absolute dear and editing this for me~  
> Now on to some serious business.   
> WARNING: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS OF VIOLENCE! IT IS FAIRLY GRAPHIC! THERE IS ALSO AN UNGRAPHIC SCENE OF ATTEMPTED RAPE. IF THAT WILL TRIGGER YOU OR MAKES YOU UNCOMFORTABLE THAN I HAVE LABLED THE SCENE WITH A BOLD SENTENCE JUST LIKE THIS! JUST SKIP TO THE NEXT BOLD SENTENCE!   
> Seriously guys. I have had a horrible experience with posting something then being attacked for having a disgusting mind. I refuse to go through that again. So if you can’t handle please skip to the bold sentence that says “Earlier on the Moby Dick” there is no more violence after that. PLEASE!  
> Okay~ with that~

**SET SAIL!**

It was dark.

Complete darkness, not even the ever present light from his fire gave him any reprieve from the all-encompassing darkness. Probably because he couldn’t feel his fire. It was gone, no pleasant heat, no flashes of people or places, just absolute darkness. Something Ace hadn’t felt in over a year, and after having some vision back because of the flames, the sudden loss shocked Ace into unresponsiveness.

They put cuffs on him made of the same fire stealing kairoseki that they shot him with to capture him earlier. They even pulled out the bullets and patched him up. For what reason, he didn’t know. Marines weren’t particularly known for treating pirates well, so the treatment confused him something fierce.

He was still on the deck of the Marine’s craft; at least he thought he was. He didn’t think they went down any stairs and he could still feel the sun on his neck. Hotter than he remembered but that was likely due to his fire being stolen away from him. He was kneeling in the middle of the deck, probably, his torso bent over his knees, hands cuffed in front of him.

His anxiety levels were rising with every passing second, panicked about what these government dogs wanted with him. His feelings were stopped at the voice of the captain from earlier.

“Well, well, pirate scum, finally in your proper place at the feet of better men. How gratifying to know I put you there.”

Ace could hear the footsteps coming from the front; the man stopping right next to Ace’s cuffed hands lying on the deck. The teen kept his head down, holding himself back from rising to the taunt, and because he refused to let a Marine discover his disability before the rest of his family did. He only had to suffer the man’s presence for a little while. The others would wonder what was taking him so long and would come looking for him. He just had to be patient.

The foot that suddenly stomped on his hands surprised him. The boot was heavy and he could hear his bones creak, the pain was intense but Ace would not allow these dogs to hear his ache.

“Well, pirate,” the man spat down at Ace’s still bowed head, “looks like we’ll have fun ripping screams out of that pretty mouth of yours.”

Unlikely, but Ace would give the man props for his acting. Marines were more or less cowards. They couldn’t do anything to him that the teen hadn’t felt before. He grew up fending for himself amongst bandits, thieves, and thugs. A ship full of marines was like eating something he didn’t like, disgusting while it happened, but didn’t hinder him at all in the long run.

Ace smiled to himself at his thoughts and buried his head further into the deck, to hide his smile and too further keep his eyes hidden. He would put up with these pathetic high talking marines for now, but he would enjoy lighting their ship ablaze when his family came to get him.

“I think the pirate is hiding something from us, captain.” The slimy voice that sent shudders down his spine spoke again, his tone giving Ace the feeling that something bad was about to happen.

He didn’t even feel the man coming up behind him until he felt the grubby hand grab at his hair, yanking his head up by the delicate strands. As soon as he felt the tug he squeezed his eyes shut as hard as he could. He’d be damned if he let them see.

“Lemme get a good look at those eyes of yours. Open up, pirate.” The way he spat pirate out like it was a disease pissed Ace off. Pirates were freedom, pirates were family.

He felt the man move, still gripping way too hard on his hair. He shifted till he replaced the captain’s position in front of Ace. It felt like he was kneeling. The next feeling the teen got was a calloused hand grabbing at his chin, tilting his head up in an obvious attempt to make Ace open his eyes by putting him in direct path of the sun. Well sucks for him that the teen is in perpetual darkness.

Upon the movement not having the effect the marine obviously thought it would, he shook Ace’s head by the younger’s hair. The teen could feel as strands of his mane were yanked right out of his scalp. But the fire wielder wasn’t going to allow them the satisfaction of making him open his eyes. He was proud, and stubborn. He would not beg, he would not cry, he wouldn’t make a sound, nor would he ever comply to anything they asked.

“You punk.” The man hissed out, hand removing itself from Ace’s chin to grab at the teen’s eyes. The marine was going to try and pry his eye open. Fuck that shit.

Ace lifted his still sore hands with a sort of lightning swiftness and grabbed on to the lapels of the man’s military issued uniform, at least he was pretty sure it was the issued one, and used his hold as leverage to slam his head into the creepy guy’s nose. The scream Ace managed to pull from his throat made him want to smile evilly.

“Futhker!” the man wailed, most likely standing again. Hah. Stupid marine.

Ace was a little too lost in his small win to notice a shift in the air around him, so it was a major jolt when something heavy and hard hit him right in the jaw. The blow caused him to fly back a few feet, his torso now bent awkwardly over his kneeling legs, his jaw aching. It wasn’t dislocated, but damn. That man must have had some metal in his shoes, no way could that force alone could cause him that much discomfort.

The teen still didn’t make a sound though. No matter what he would suffer at the hands of these cowards, he would not grace them with a single slip of his tongue.

“Tsk tsk, pirate. That’s no way to treat your betters.” Another voice spoke, not the captain and certainly not the creepy man whose nose he just broke. This man’s voice was gruffer than both of theirs, and sounded a bit…vindictive?

A large hand wrapped around his own right hand. It was calloused and rough and Ace was confused as to why a marine would hold his hand of all things. He got his answer in a few moments when the man’s other hand gripped on to the top of his pointer finger and placed his thumb on the middle knuckle. The teen knew what was going to happen before the man put any force behind his hand.

The man pulled at the top of Ace’s finger and pushed his thumb at the knuckle. A loud crack echoed throughout the air as the teen listened, and felt, as his finger was broken. The pain was sudden and harsh and Ace had to press his lips together tightly to make sure a whimper didn’t leave his throat against his will.

“We have to make sure you can’t do the same thing again, don’t we?” the man sing-songed, moving his hand to the middle finger of the same hand as the broken pointer finger. “Are you going to apologize, pirate?”

Ace kept his mouth sealed as he squeezed his eyes closed harder, bracing himself for the pain that he knew was going to come; surely enough the man broke his middle finger as well. Moving his hand again, the man got the teen’s ring finger into the position to be broken and asked a different question.

“You won’t contaminate another marine with your filthy hands again, will you, pirate?” the man seemed rather fond of repeating the word pirate like it was a curse word. Ace didn’t care. This wouldn’t be the first time he had broken a finger or three.

The marine continued on, his hands moving place only to break another finger while he asked the teen a stupid question. Until all ten of Ace’s fingers were broken, stabbing pains shooting up his hands at every slight movement he made with them. He was biting his bottom lip now, still determined to not let these fuckers get their way.

“Certainly a stubborn one, isn’t he?” The captain purred out, disgusting Ace in the same way that the slimy guy did. These guys were truly fucked up in the head.

Ace was still on his back over his legs, facing the sky, eyes squeezed shut, and teeth biting on his bottom lip to keep any and all sounds in. He faintly heard footsteps walk up to him again, and then his hair was once again roughly grabbed and he was yanked back into a kneeling position, head held up by the hand in his hair and some rank breath being blown in his face.

“Won’t be trying that again now that you can’t move your fingers, will you, punk?” the creepy man spoke right next to the teen’s ear, he was obviously the one holding on to Ace’s hair again. The teen would admit that the man couldn’t be completely useless if he knew that breaking his fingers would cause them to go numb. But the man didn’t know Ace, and the teen always took a challenge seriously.

So even with the shooting pain in his fingers, Ace once again lifted his hands with lightning speed and grabbing on to the man’s lapels. Using the muscles in his arms, the teen pulled on the other and this time slammed his head into the man’s eye socket, aiming to collapse it.

The teen sort of slumped over as the man flew back with the force Ace put behind the blow. His arms outstretched in front of him, trying to distract himself from the pain in his fingers by pulling out the aches from his back and arms. The teen’s ears pricked up a little at the following sounds.

Even if Ace didn’t manage to collapse the socket, the man was certainly in some serious pain if his wails clued the teen in to anything. He heard some rushing boots and had to hold back from smirking to himself. Idiots. Never underestimate a pirate.

“Wrong move, pirate.”

Suddenly his left forearm was on fire. Not the comforting kind of heat from his flames either, it was a deep hurting flare that brought pain shooting through his entire arm. His jaw clenched, and he had to hold back tears as he felt it. A heavy boot was grinding down on his forearm. Ace heard the crunches of his own bone, even through the sounds of the bustling men around him.

When the boot left Ace had just about let out a huge sigh of relief. That was definitely more painful than the broken fingers, even if the fingers were broken over a longer period of time. Unfortunately his relief was short lived.

The same pain that raced its way through Ace’s left forearm was now mirrored in the teen’s right. The same feeling of a heavy boot grinding down and crunching the bone into the deck followed the sharp stinging pain.

Ace was breathing deeply through his nose as the boot lifted from his arm, trying to calm himself, to keep himself from broadcasting his pain with his voice. He was fine. He could take this. They wouldn’t break him. He just had to be patient. His family was coming. They would notice he was late. They would be here soon. He could outlast these assholes no problem.

The teen’s resolve was tested not moments later when rushing feet passed him swiftly, every single foot kicking or tapping Ace’s hands; which sent a shocking amount of pain through each of his fingers. But, if that wasn’t bad enough, the kicks also jarred his arms sending a double amount of the earlier burning pain through his forearms.

“I’m surprised at your tenacity, pirate.” The captain spat out, calm and collected as if one of his prisoners, and so called entertainment, hadn’t just injured one of his crew men. What an asshole. “But I bet you cannot keep that stubbornness of yours intact forever.”

Ace just clenched his teeth, grinding his forehead into the wooden floor, hoping to get himself back in the right frame of mind to withstand this. They may think he has given up, but Ace will not stop trying to fight them. He could withstand their tortures, but that didn’t mean he had to take them lying down, dammit.

“I ‘ink he ‘inks ‘e’s be’er ‘an us, cap’in.” a different voice spoke, his words obviously that of a man with no couth and no education of any kind. At least Ace had Makino around to teach him some kind of proper grammar, of course he asked her too but still.

“Perhaps you are right, Lieutenant. Maybe you should reeducate the cur.”

The chuckles that followed after the captain’s statement rubbed Ace the wrong way. The teen tried to make sense of the sounds he was hearing but his mind was almost completely focused on the pain radiating from his fingers and his forearms.

So the hand in his hair, yanking his head back, was a complete surprise, a painful surprise. What was with these assholes and lifting his head up by his hair? He was being safe by keeping his eyes squeezed shut, but he had no idea what the marines were planning.

There was a pause for a minute, and Ace thought he could feel a sort of sucking feeling from the air being pulled from his face. Maybe like a fist or a foot being pulled away from his head?

“Uh uh. Not his face, lieutenant.” The captain’s voice slunk out.

Well that confirmed the idea that Ace was about to be hit in the face, with a foot or a fist he didn’t know, but for some reason the captain wanted his face left untouched. How odd. But the man with horrible grammar released his hair, his head practically slamming onto the deck of the boat.

“’a’s fine, go’ ano’er idea an’way. Migh’ as ‘ell pu’ ‘hem bu’et woun’s to use.”

That was the only warning that Ace got before the bandages were ripped from his back and a thumb was shoved into the bullet wound in his abdomen. The teen threw his head back, straining his neck muscles to the max as he fought to hold the pain in and to not scream his head off.

“Wer’d yer pri’e go, pirat’!” the man yelled, digging his thumb in further, causing Ace to bite down on his bottom lip hard enough to taste the bitter tang of his own blood. Dammit, fuck this shit.

“’ink yer be’er ‘an us, dun’t ya, pirat’?! ‘ell ya ain’t!” The thumb went in even further and the teen just about gave in to the pain and let his voice out, but then he realized something.

The pain was fleeting.

With more effort than the teen thought he could even put into something at the moment, Ace lifted himself up on to his elbows, being careful not to put any pressure on his forearms, and swung his uncuffed legs. His aim was the asshole with a thumb in his body.

His abs were burning with the effort but the fire user was able to kick the guy right in the temple, a whimper being the only noise he let out before he crumpled to the floor. Ace was up and running in seconds, his aim to jump into the ocean, sure that it was a better alternative than waiting for his family on this vessel.

He didn’t have access to his fire so he had no idea where he was running. All he knew was that anywhere else was better than where he was, with those assholes.

A hand grabbed at him, digging his fingers hard into Ace’s shoulders. The teen relied solely on his instincts built up from training day in and day out in the jungle with his brothers. Focusing his senses completely on his surroundings, and disregarding any pain he is or isn’t feeling.

With great happiness Ace just let himself go. He returned to the kid who was blind and a troublemaker. Who was a wanted teen, who did illegal things and then had to defend himself from thugs. He just let go of his control, and became the wild animal he was before Luffy. And he was glad for it.

Ace swung his leg around and connected his foot with neck of the man who was holding him, forcing the air right from the other and getting him to release the teen’s shoulder. The younger kept his momentum going and back flipped away from the fallen marine and in the process knocked out another sailor that was coming up from behind him.

Another arm wrapped around his neck and the fire user swung his body forward, bringing the guy over his head and dropping him on the deck. Ace then smashed his foot into the fallen guy’s face, hopefully knocking him out.

Two more sets of arms wrapped around his body from both sides, and now, more than ever, Ace wished he could light them on fire. But he couldn’t, so he made due with his pure strength and ability.

He twisted sharply, startling the one on his right into letting go which in turn made the teen immediately shoot his leg out, connecting with the man’s private parts. The man let out a terribly high-pitched scream which disoriented Ace slightly but had the plus of making the other marine release the teen’s arm as well, holding his ears in pain.

The teen wouldn’t have been a pirate if he didn’t take advantage of that, so he swung his leg up high, hitting the man dead on in his temple with his heel. The man crumpled without a sound, and Ace stumbled as he tried to reorganize his mental map of the ship from where he ran so far. He stepped away from the panicking sounds of the other crew members, and once again aimed for the side of the ship, hoping to escape into the water. Even though he would drown in seconds without someone nearby to rescue him, and he doubted the marines would go through the trouble after all the mess Ace had caused by now, it was still a better alternative than staying on this boat.

Ace barely got a few steps before he was tripped by what felt like a cold metal pole, not unlike the ones he and his brothers had used back in Goa. He swung his arms up on reflex to protect his face from the no doubt horrible pain of landing face first onto a hard wooden deck. He forgot about the broken bones in his fingers and arms during the sort of battle, and he was barely able to keep himself from screaming out in pain. Tears welled up in his eyes as two sets of hands held him down by the shoulders, another slamming his head into the deck despite his attempt to stop it from happening just a few seconds ago.

“Naughty, naughty, you filthy sea rat. Now we have to make it so you cannot attempt anything like this little escape plan again.” The captain’s refined voice was spoken near him. The man’s tone would feel velvety to anyone in a different positon, but to the trapped teen it felt like coarse burlap.

Heavy steps sounded near him and Ace was morbidly curious as to what they thought would keep him from fleeing. A soft clinking sound followed the steps, sort of as if a light piece of metal was being dragged behind whoever was making said steps. The sound stopped and the teen could feel a sort of slight sinking near his ankles, meaning it was a heavy man, and he was standing right by his feet. This would not be pretty at all.

“Why don’t you make sure this little beast won’t be able to run from us again, Warrant Officer?”

Ace barely had a second to brace himself before something metal and round was brought down on his ankle, causing a crack to resound. The teen could hear it even with the cheering in the background. What kind of idiot crew stands around and cheers about torturing a prisoner instead of helping their downed comrades?

The fire user’s thoughts ran from his mind the second the round metal thing swung down again and hit the same ankle, the pain this time causing the teen to struggle against the two men holding him down. He didn’t stop trying to escape from them even as his arms started to burn with the strain or when his wrists started screaming at him to stay still because dammit did the cuffs hurt to rub against!

The thing was brought down once more on the same ankle and Ace just bit into his bottom lip, still refusing to give these marines the gratification of causing him to scream. But his resolve was tested when the heavy man switched to attacking the teen’s other ankle.

While the pole-man was busy doing that, Ace tried to distract himself with testing the already hurting ankle to see if it was broken or just bruised. The first attempt answered his question in spades as a hurting fire raced up his muscles at the slight movement, much like what happened with his fingers and his arms.

The man hit his right ankle a total of six times unlike the left’s three. If his left ankle was broken with only three hits then his right must be totally shattered right now. The teen felt a tear escape his eye and he tried once more to escape from the captors pushing his bare shoulders into the splintered wooden deck. It didn’t help that Ace could feel blood pooling around his shoulder and his abdomen, most likely his bullet wounds reopening. Fucking assholes.

“Well, now that you cannot escape, let us get on with our fun shall we?”

Every time that damned captain spoke it sounded ominous and not at all good for the once fire wielding teen. And it seemed that with each sentence a new marine was intent of hurting him in some way or another. In fact Ace was starting to see a damn pattern, and it pissed him off.

Unfortunately the pain from his fingers, and his forearms, and his ankles seems to all be pulsing at the same moment and made it incredibly difficult for the teen to move any part of his body. The captain was right, Ace was pretty sure he couldn’t escape now. But that was still okay. He had been gone a long time but didn’t travel that far, so surely the family would be looking for him by now. He just had to hold on until they found him.

He heard more footsteps come towards him, sounding like maybe three people? With an off chance of it being four or five? They all had pretty heavy steps, and two of them seemed to walk with a sort of waddle, almost as if they were injured or too overweight to walk smoothly.

The teen’s morbid curiosity rose again and he couldn’t help but wonder what torture they may have in stored for him next.

The acrid smell of cigarette and cigar smoke attacked his nose and the teen couldn’t help but wonder if all of the men approaching him were smoking. It wasn’t a pleasant smell, and it sent a worrying shiver down his spine. These men shouldn’t all be smoking. Cigarettes and cigars were not common on the seas, and those who had them hoarded them. There were a few on the Moby Dick who were like rabid dogs when someone tried to take one of their cigs.

Ace was a little lost in his thoughts when he was flipped onto his back, his torso facing the sky. There were four sets of hands on him, moving him in the most painful way as possible, jerking his broken bones almost viciously. The pain was excruciating and he bit into his bottom lip again, still determined to keep his voice from escaping, the teen thought for a moment that his teeth met. But the slamming of his body into the deck jerked his mind away from everything besides the pain. The burning pain.

His mind was taken off from his broken bones when a different sensation caused him to focus on it instead of his older injuries. It was a sharp sting in his abdominal area, right below his left pectoral. He didn’t know what the feeling was at first. It wasn’t something he had ever experienced, not even before he was a fire-man.

He was being burnt. With the cigarettes.

He couldn’t ponder the thoughts for too long, because another stick was placed on the mirrored spot to the first. It seemed this had opened the gates to all the other men smoking to start placing their burning butts on different parts of his front. Above his belly button, on both sides of his collar bone, on his hips, just above his crotch, below his nipples, his ribs. They burnt him just about every place available on his front side. The pain each one brought was delayed but no less intense from every other burn.

His head was thrown back, digging into the hard deck, muscles straining, and he had to withhold his desire to buck them off and attack them again. But his ankles were in no position to move, in fact, Ace didn’t even think he **could** move them, with how much they hurt, he could barely move his toes inside his boot.

The pain had actually risen to a level that Ace was able to half ignore it as he pondered on why exactly they had left his boots on while breaking his ankles…which immediately brought his thoughts to his clothes, and then to his hat. Where was his hat? Did they have it? Where were they keeping it somewhere? He needed it back. That was his memento from Luffy. To match the kid’s own straw hat and Sabo’s. The younger seemed to think that Ace would be left out if he didn’t have a hat like Sabo’s top hat, or Luffy’s straw one. So the kid thought a cowboy hat was the way to go. Said it was bright orange and went nicely with his dark hair, eyes, and tannish skin. What a dork.

“Uh uh, don’t zone out now you freak.”

A boot pressed down on his stomach, pushing the air from his lungs and rubbing the burns there is an unpleasant way. He didn’t let out any noise but he did open his mouth to suck in more air, hoping to relieve the burning in his lungs that matched the burning of his skin.

The boot was removed not a second later and Ace started to cough, spittle easily passing his lips as he tried to breath in as much air as possible. His plan was stopped when a larger butt was pressed right into his neck, under his jaw on the right side. The teen clamped his eyes shut and bit his bottom lip again, the pain causing his jaw to strain.

This one didn’t go out as quick as the smaller ones on his torso did, this one kept burning as it was connected to his neck. It hurt worse too, his neck was always more sensitive than the rest of his body, well that and his back. His tattoo hurt like a bitch too, luckily Uchoraji was kind enough to rub a sort of numbing agent on his back before he started to ink into his skin.

What was it with him and drifting off to his inane thoughts when he was in the midst of being attacked? Did that make him more mentally unstable than others? Was he some kind of freak because he was able to ignore obvious torture by fluttering off with random thoughts?

But the cigar, because it had to be a cigar, smelled horrible and felt just like one, was moved from under his jaw to his clavicle. Fuck did it burn like a bitch. And he could smell the rancid burning of his own skin from the cigar’s previous place under his jaw. He actually made to whimper when his mind seemed to jolt back into clarity.

His thoughts were hardened once again, he was still determined. He was going to survive this, he was going to get out of this just fine, and he was going to cry hard and long when the family finally came to save him. He would admit to them everything. That he was blind, that he was broken, that he was less than a man. He didn’t care. They deserved everything after they came to save him.

His muscles all tightened in anticipation. He was ready for anything they thought they could dish out. And he would not make a single sound. Fuck their desire to make him scream. He was more stubborn than they ever thought he could be.

“Well this has gotten old, lads, let’s move off shall we?”

Again with that creepy captain and his odd penchant for saying things that sounded like a final send off. This guy would have made a great funeral priest. His final sayings were just so…final sounding. Ace was not the most eloquent at the moment, what with all the physical pain he had going on right now. And more that was going to happen based on that guy’s previous sentence.

“Tie him to the cross arms, gents. Let’s have us a jolly good show, shall we?” that was a different voice, another fucking person on this shitty ship that wanted to cause him pain in a unique way. His voice was different, like the guy who couldn’t speak out his t’s only he was more literate. It was an odd sort of accent, and one Ace didn’t think he had heard before. But it would have been nice sounding if not for the vicious nature of it.

Something grabbed at the chain that linked his cuffs together and pulled up. The sudden movement jarred his arms and ankles and Ace had to bite his tongue this time to keep from screaming. It was a good thing he did not try to escape again, even putting a slight amount of pressure on his feet caused his ankles to burn something fierce. The captain was certainly correct about stopping him from trying to escape again. Now that he knows what it feels like to stand on his shattered ankles, he wasn’t going to try again.

There was an arm that wrapped around his left bicep, and another that wrapped around his right, both leading him to some place unknown. They didn’t go too far though, just about ten steps forward and maybe five or six to the right. Then they released his arms and yanked them back, causing tears to well up in his still clamped shut eyes, it felt like his shoulders were almost yanked out of their sockets.

They brought them back over his head, raising his arms almost straight up. They then attached something that sounded like metal to the chains of his cuffs and then let go of his arms. Instead of crumpling to the ground like he expected, due to his inability to stand, his arms kept him up. Or more correctly they attached something to his cuffs that was keeping him up right, hanging.

He sort of twirled a little on his feet before he raised them with what little energy he had left. The spinning was worse on his ankles than the walking was.

The crew sort of left him alone for a few minutes, a light chattering reaching his ears. None of it was loud enough for the teen to hear, but it certainly sounded like they were finally carting those men he injured off to the infirmary. Bout damn time. His family never would have left any of their members knocked out on the deck for too long. These marines were truly assholes.

The first blow was a shock to Ace. The pain, the lack of air, and the sudden need to pee. Whoever it was, they hit him right in the bladder, right over a majority of the burn wounds. It felt like a fist, not bare but covered in something. Gloves maybe?

He didn’t ponder long as another blow came. Right in his left rib cage this time. Air was forced out of his mouth and he had to use more willpower to keep the screams in as he didn’t have his bottom lip to bite on anymore. Not with him trying to keep air in his lungs.

“This is how ya really play with a piece of entertainment, lads. Gotta rough him up real nice, but leave the injuries more subtle, aye? Make many small injuries that combine to make a real unpleasant experience, right, trash?” the man with the weird accent spoke, his breath coming out in slight pants and right next to his ear. He must be the guy that was hurting him now. Are they taking turns?

“Bet ya didn’t expect something like this, aye, monster?”

His words hurt more than his next punch did. Monster? How-why would he call Ace a monster? They-they didn’t know. No one knew. Besides Luffy, Marco, and pops. No one knew. So it was just a-an insult. Something the man came up with off the top of his head. Had to be.

“You’re pathetic.” Another punch, this one to his left ribcage, was delivered with his words.

“To think ya were so confident that ya could take us.” A hit to the pectorals. “Cause ya are some almighty bloody Whitebeard Pirate. HA!” this time it was a boot to the left side of his body, causing some cracks to sound from his tender ribs. He coughed with that hit, something warm and sticky coming out of his mouth, probably blood.

“Ya are just some bloke that Whitebeard took in. You ain’t special, freak. He takes in all sorts a’ low time pirates. Ya don’t even have a bloody price on ya head do ya? Pathetic.” A kick to the other side of his torso, something breaking quite loudly, probably a rib but with all the blood rushing through his ears, it could have been something bigger to Ace.

The man’s words were rushing around in his head. He was right. Pops took in his own crew, none of which had a price on their heads, by all means small time compared to the old man and his commanders. Ace had a bounty but it wasn’t all too high, not by the Whitebeard crew standards. He didn’t belong with them. He was nothing. They weren’t going to come for him. They didn’t care. They would have been here by now if they did. Where-

A powerful punch to the middle of his pectorals shocked him horribly, his mouth hanging open, a scream would have escaped if not for the small part of his brain that was still telling him to hang on. For once Ace was glad for the hit. It cleared his head.

His family would come for him. They **would** because they were his family. To these marines they were just crewmates but Ace knew better, they were family, and family did not abandon one another.

The man attacking him must have noticed a change in poster or something because he suddenly let out a frustrated yell and punched Ace right in the jaw. The same place he was kicked earlier, the bruise was going to be quite the sight for his family. The teen actually had to squeeze his eyes harder cause the impact surprised him into wanting to open them, to relieve them of some of the water that had built up from his almost crying so often.

“Those bangs are annoying, petty officer. Remove them.” The captain’s disturbing voice reached his ears once more and Ace didn’t even try to stop the shudder that ran through him. Great sea gods above was that man vile, in a completely different way from the Teach guy from the family. Wait. What did he say?

He heard a sort of metal swishing sound, like that of a blade being drawn. Well fuck.

Now more than ever he would have to keep his eyes closed because someone just came up and lopped off his center bangs, the ones that were particularly important to keeping his eyes covered.

“There we go. Now we can see your face twist in pain during the next part of our entertainment.” His voice made it sound like he was smiling and Ace couldn’t help but think it was most likely an unflattering one. “Horis, fetch me the Hand. Boris, resituate our guest for his next event.”

Ace heard heavy footsteps walk away from the place where he was strung up, most likely to get this ‘Hand’ thing the pungent captain was talking about. While another set started towards him.

Was every man on this ship heavy set? Or freaking huge? Why else would their steps sound so heavy? Unless they were doing it purposefully? But Ace couldn’t imagine why marines would want to walk heavily, and don’t they have to sneak around sometimes? From experience the teen knew you had to have light steps when trying to skulk around without getting caught.

Ace really needed to stop getting so lost in his own head, before he knew it, the man, Boris, had pulled on the cuff chains and the hook or whatever keeping him up. He adjusted it in such a way that the teen wasn’t really hanging anymore, but just held up. He wasn’t swinging anymore and it made him overall more stable. Just what exactly was the ‘Hand’ and why did it require Ace to be more stable than he was?

Boris walked away rather quickly after fixing the teen’s binds. And the fire user was left in almost silence, the only sound being the shifts and breaths of the other crew members still watching. At least until another set of footsteps started. These were lighter than all the others Ace had heard on the ship. And the gait was shorter, more relaxed than the rigidness of the rest of the sailors.

A slightly slim hand touched his left shoulder blade. It wasn’t muscled like Thatch’s, or warm like Marco’s, it wasn’t even soft like Izou’s, or too big like Pops’. It was just sort of there, brushing over his shoulder blade before trailing down over his tattoo. It sent a shiver up Ace’s spine, this sort of feather touch from someone he didn’t know.

“You are so proud of this, aren’t you, pirate?” It was the fucking captain. He was touching him, his tattoo, his **pride**. How dare he?!

“I am going to enjoy taking this from you, filth. Watching that deceiving face of yours crumple in pain and despair.” He took in a deep breath then, leaning over Ace’s back, his lips touching the shell of the teen’ ear as he spoke. “You will remember me for the rest of your wretched life.”

The man moved away after he spoke his words, and Ace couldn’t help but feel violated. That man touched his pride, his sign of his family. The teen couldn’t wait to get back on the Moby Dick and scrub away every trace of this incident. And he would get back on the Moby, his family would find him, and he was looking forward to the punishment they will rain down on these marines in his stead. Because Ace had no doubt he’s be confined to the infirmary when he was rescued. With these wounds the nurses probably wouldn’t let him out for a month at the least.

“Ahh. Much obliged, Horis.” This putrid captain must have been raised by a noble or lived near one or something, because he sure as hell spoke like one, with his fancy words and what not. Sabo said that word once, ‘obliged’, it was like a fancy way of saying thank you. What a freak this captain was.

But his words must have meant that the crony brought whatever it was that the ‘Hand’ was. The only thing Ace could discern about the device was a few odd clinks of metal on the wooden deck of the ship. Was it some weird collection of broken swords? What else could make that sound? But why call it the ‘Hand’?

A sort of whistling sounded through the air followed by a loud crack and Ace almost gave up trying to not cry out in pain. What felt like blades raked down his back, from his left shoulder down to his lower back, slicing skin like it was butter. Needless to say Ace did let out a quiet hiss between clenched teeth, trying to guide his pain out in a non-vocal way.

Laughs reached his ears as he finally released his pain through hisses. They thought it was funny. Him being **whipped**. Well it wasn’t too much of a shock; Ace already knew they were a bunch of psychos. Even by a pirate’s standard.

“Come on, pretty boy, scream for me.” The captain’s voice was quiet; most people wouldn’t have been able to hear him over the raucous laughter of the rest of the crew. But Ace heard him. And it made the teen feel as if this wasn’t going to end with one or two lashes. It also gave him a feeling in his gut that this was not the grand finale for these assholes. Fuck. If this wasn’t the last torture, Ace didn’t want to experience their end game.

Another swoosh through the air and an even louder crack caused the teen to throw his head back far in agony, even going as far as arching his back, hoping to relieve the pain of the slashes. This one went up, from the very top of his butt to his mid back, where the Jolly Roger’s smile was located. It was that thought that made Ace want to scream, the captain’s plot unravelling itself inside the teen’s now overacting brain.

Ace ignored the next few lashes, choosing instead to focus himself on his new realization. The marine captain wanted to remove the mark from his back. In the most painful way possible, this psycho was going to whip and tear his skin to get rid of the teen’s family mark. It was the worst humiliation possible for a prideful Whitebeard Pirate. Having your mark removed, was like stabbing Pops in the back. And the teen started to really cry at that thought.

The pain in his back barely registered as the marine crew laughed on, the captain even joining in as he continue to whip at his uncovered back, at his mark. The only think Ace could think about was his betrayal of the old man. He should have tried harder to escape, to protect himself, to keep his tattoo whole.

Tears rolled down his cheeks from his closed eyes, burning them with the pain of all that water trapped behind his lids. He didn’t even have to think about keeping his eyes shut, or stopping himself from making a noise. His whole body had shut down. His mind was stuck on that one thought.

He betrayed his pops.

In the worse way possible, he had let down the one man Ace had ever felt he could call a father. He was a failure. He was more deceitful than he thought he could be. By taking that mark, by taking it into his skin, his body, his soul, he had made an unspoken promise to the old man and to every single one of his crewmates, his family. To Thatch, to Izou, and Haruto, and to **Marco**. He had made a promise to honor his mark, to protect it as he would protect them, that it would signify his devotion to them and to the old man.

It was no wonder they weren’t going to save him. He betrayed them. He did the second worst thing amongst the Whitebeard Pirates. He had allowed the old man to be stabbed in the back. Even just figuratively was enough to exile him from this family of his.

He didn’t want to live with that knowledge.

“Seems like I finally broke your mind, pirate.” The captain’s voice slithered in to his pity party and Ace became more aware of his surroundings and his own body.

He felt light headed, and dizzy. His back felt like it was completely drenched in water, but the teen knew it was his own blood. He could feel his own skin slapping against his body, hanging from him by slivers of still connected patches. And when he shifted his head he almost screamed out in pain as his long hair brushed over the wounds on his upper back and neck area. His hair burned him. The open wounds on his back hurt worse than every other injury on his body. Not because of the mental pain but because of how very sensitive it was.

Even locked in his own head, Ace felt every single lash. Amplified by a number so large the teen didn’t even want to think about it. His body was on fire and his mind was left in shattered pieces.

But still he didn’t make a sound. Not when the captain started towards him. Not when he placed a rag wet with salt water on his back. Not when he grabbed onto his hair. Not when he yanked it up harshly. And not when he smacked him hard in the same place on his jaw he was kicked and punched.

He may have disgraced his family by allowing this marine to forcefully remove his mark, but he would be damned if he let the asshole make him cry out. He still had a chance to make it right with is family. When he told them how he wouldn’t make a sound. How he fought on in the only way he could. There was a chance, a small chance, but a chance Ace would hold dear, that the Whitebeards would still accept him as their brother and son.

“Looks like it will take the main event to get you to scream as prettily as you should, pirate.”

It was quiet for a brief second, all laughter halting as the captain did something. Not a second later Ace collapsed onto the deck, his cuffs released from whatever hook was keeping him up right. All his broken bones flared in pain as he fell, making sure to fall forward to keep his back from touching anything else as much as possible.

Still his back stretched and burned as he fell forward, his legs resting in an odd kneeling position as his torso was bent over them, his arms spread in front of him, his face practically buried in the deck. He tried to move as little as possible as a bustle of movement occurred around him, the only person not currently moving being the bane of Ace’s current existence, the blasted marine captain.

The teen’s active thoughts were still focused around his betrayal of his family, but certain rogue thoughts roamed to his dark curiosity, wondering what on earth could be considered the main event for the pompous captain. Was it not enough to whip him and remove his pride from his body? What else could the man do? What else could he take, that would be worse than his tattoo being torn to shreds by a whip.

**BEGINNING OF THE RAPE SCENE (PLEASE SKIP IF TO NEXT BOLD IF IT MAKES YOU UNCOMFORTABLE)**

The man’s hand grabbed his head again and pulled him up by his hair, forcing the teen to rise despite the horrible pain it was causing him. The man didn’t make him go all that far up, just enough to where he was on his knees but not bent over, his body completely perpendicular to his shins connected to the deck.

The next movement from the captain shocked Ace horribly, and made a rock settle itself at the pit of his stomach. The man released his hair but then immediately wrapped his clothed arms around the teen’s upper body, the scratchy material burning his back and the round burns littered all over his front. It even made his hurting ribs twinge with a deeper pain.

The hands sticking out of the end of those scratchy sleeves were palm down on Ace’s chest, roaming around his muscles slightly. The once fire user had no idea what the captain thought he would accomplish by doing this. It irritated his other wounds, yes, but it didn’t cause any kind of pain other than that. So what was the man’s ploy? What did he hope to achieve by touching Ace this way?

“I am going to enjoy this more than anything else, pirate.” The man hissed into the teen’s ear, scaring Ace in a way that he hadn’t been in his entire time on this ship. Whatever the man had in mind, it was going to be worse than everything else, the teen knew it. “I am sure you will come to enjoy it as well. After all, you pirates are such slaves to pleasure.”

The rock in the teen’s stomach dropped further and his breathing picked up, his heart pumping harder and faster as the captain’s hand started to trail down his chest. At first he hoped the man would stop at this stomach and dig in or something, but that disgusting had continued on, reaching the teen’s shorts in no time.

It was when the other was unbuckling the belt that held his shorts up that Ace completely froze. Thoughts no longer running through his head, mind no longer running through possible tortures, we was just…shocked into an immobile state.

The man didn’t notice, just undid the teen’s belt and pulled his shorts down until they laid on the deck around his knees. He then proceeded to push Ace’s head down with one hand, forcing the teen to put all his weight on his elbows, while his other hand made something unzip.

The teen was still unmoving, not sure how to process anything when a hand was placed on his left butt cheek, spreading it out slightly causing a cold wind to brush against Ace’s most private place. A low whistle reached his ears and a couple of jeers but the teen ignored them entirely, his breath coming faster and faster and for a second the teen thought he could get out of this by running out of breath and collapsing. Then he felt something touch his hole. It was blunt and bigger than a finger.

Ace forgot completely about his determination not to make a sound, and he dropped his mouth, despite the pain, and let out the loudest and most desperate shriek he had ever made. Now more than ever he needed his family to save him. This couldn’t happen to him. He wouldn’t live through it. This kind of violation. No. Not him. Not to him.

A pressure was applied to his backside.

The next scream was louder and higher, desperation soaked in its tone.

It travelled miles.

**END OF RAPE SCENE!**

**Earlier on the Moby Dick**

Marco was looking out over the ocean. It was quieter somehow, without the younger fire fruit user around. Thatch was staying holed up in the kitchen with Izou, Haruta was sort of listlessly walking around, and Marco was zoning out over the railing. It’s not that they couldn’t do anything, more like they were just waiting to congratulate their youngest upon his return.

Of course the other’s thoughts were most likely more subdued than Marco’s were. The blonde just could not stop thinking about the ebony-haired teen. His flowing locks, his pouty lips, the adorable freckles that dusted his cheeks and shoulders, his perfect body, and, the most prominent thought, his unique hazy grey eyes.

The teen took over his thoughts completely, even when Ace was around, Marco was still thinking of him, of his lips. More than ever Marco cursed Thatch and his horrible timing…Actually it was Uchoraji’s, but the phoenix and the Artist had an understanding, so it was mostly Thatch’s fault.

The man was grateful for the small amount of time he got to be so intimately close to the beautiful teen. Even if it did haunt his dreams and cause him to wonder what it would be like to make love to the fire user, his inner phoenix seemed to preen every time that thought crossed his mind. Plus it was the first time Marco had thought of it as making love and not just getting off. It was new but the man embraced the idea with his whole body. In fact he was determined to let Ace know how he felt when the teen got back from this beginner level mission.

Sea gods above, when would the terror return so Marco could ravish him gently…okay he needed to take a breath and calm down, this wasn’t like him and he’d scare the teen away if he came on too strong…He really needed to talk to someone about this.

An image of a certain cross-dressing man popped up in his head, smiling evilly. Izou. Marco would talk to Izou about how he would go about wooing the teen, the okama would be the one to know if anyone did. Yes, good plan. To the kitchens.

“Hey, peacock!” Thatch was going to get killed one day for his mouth. Marco wasn’t pleased as he whipped his head around to see the chef running towards him with Izou, carrying what looked like a ton of sandwiches. Well this saves him a trip to the kitchens.

“One day, I will kill you, Thatch.” Marco said his voice both hard and light with teasing in his tone as he watched gladly as the two came to a stop in front of him. He was really glad they got over their spat. And seemed closer than before, in fact, the phoenix had never seen Izou so damned happy.

“Nah, you’re all talk, brother!” Thatch laughed out, placing two platters of sandwiches on the deck while he grabbed a blanket thing that was wrapped around Izou’s neck. He snapped it out and it was huge. It covered a long portion of the deck, and once it was flat the chef wasted no time in setting the sandwich platters on it in a sort of planned placing. When he went to grab the platters Izou was holding, Marco was surprised when the man kissed the okama’s cheek before turning to place those platters as well. Izou’s face flushed something fierce and Marco quirked a brow. When did that happen?

“Hey, Thatch!  Whatcha doin?!” Haruta yelled out, bouncing as she made her way over to her three elder brothers. She seemed happier now then the last Marco had seen her, and the man was surprised when he realized almost the entire family was present on the deck. Even Pops had joined them on the lower deck and was laughing heartily as one of the many nurses tried to get him to put the sake down. Fat chance, Pops will drink when he wants to.

“I figured since no one wanted to be holed up in the mess hall when everyone is waiting for Ace’s return. Decided it was a good idea to have a picnic, that way we’d all be ready for the party when that rascal gets his fire butt back here.” The chef was smiling widely as the rest of his fellow chefs came up on deck, each carrying two or three platters of different foods.

The family cheered at Thatch’s idea and everyone moved to settle themselves on the too damn big blanket, where on earth did the man find one that big?

Marco himself sat down near the railing where he was zoning, the same railing where he watched Ace sail off in his specially made skiff. He’d be the first to hear and see the teen when he returned at the man wanted it that way. Last to say good luck, first to say welcome home.

Dinner proceeded from there, getting rowdy but not as rowdy as their parties tended to be, and the only one drinking was pops, but that was more cause he was always drinking. The rest of the family was waiting for Ace’s return so they could truly show the teen a real Whitebeard Party.

The sun was going down, when the food was all finished and the first doubts started to appear in their heads. Where was he? It should have taken him no longer than a few hours at most to sail around the island checking for marines. Even with his lack of sight he could extend his fire pretty far from his person so he still shouldn’t have taken more than three maybe four hours at the most. That mark passed an hour ago.

The rowdiness and general festivities were almost completely stopped by now, every single member thinking the same thing as their first mate, save of course the blindness. Even Haruta the bouncy loudmouth was subdued and morose. There was something bad going on. Something wasn’t right and Ace was in danger. Marco knew it in his gut that something bad happened to the teen. So it was time to give up on the slight air of ‘dunno-what-to-do’ and actually do something.

Marco rose from his spot and walked carefully towards pops, making sure not to step on anyone or any food that missed a mouth and landed on the deck. Even the old man knew something was wrong, he hadn’t taken a drink of his sake in quite a while, and his always present nurses were silent, for once not yelling at pops about his drinking problem.

The phoenix stopped in front of pops, looking up at him with respect but more fear than anything else, and unsurprisingly Whitebeard matched his fear with worry. He knew this wasn’t normal either, and that Ace should have returned by now.

“Orders, pops?” Marco didn’t have to say anything more than those two words. Having been with pops the longest he was graced with an ability to communicate with the man in very few words.

“Set sail. We are going to find our youngest.”

A loud roar rose from the family assembled on deck, all of them really since no one on the crew would skip a party which this was supposed to become. Marco immediately went with Jozu to the helm, the bigger being one of a few allowed to move the wheel. Thatch and Izou seemed to take it upon themselves to clean up the mess to ready for the chance of a battle, which majorly consisted of picking up the corners of the blanket and carrying the trash with them that way.

Marco was only half paying attention to anything going on upon the deck. His mind was completely focused on two things, the sinking feeling he couldn’t shake off that something horrible was happening to Ace, and his phoenix trying to burst out from his body, yearning to be released to search for the teen. But he held back, not knowing what was going on, and the teen might have it under control and barging in would make the fire user think they didn’t trust him, but they did.

They sailed for a while, maybe a few nautical miles total around the island they were thinking of landing on, the one Ace’s mission was to scout out.

It was as they were coming around the back side of the island that something truly horrible happened. Marco heard the first scream and his head snapped up immediately. It was the second scream, full of terror and grief that the rest of the crew heard. It was a broken scream. The kind someone would make when they lost everything.  

It was then that their eyes first laid sight on the large naval vessel floating along the waves, clearly anchored only a few meters off the island. But it was what was next to the large boat that caused many hearts to halt their periodic beating for a few moments and realize **who** the scream must have come from.

It was Ace’s custom skiff.

It was broken in half, the teen’s rather signature orange cowboy hat floating amongst its wreckage rather listlessly. It caused Marco’s heart to start beating louder and his mind blanked from everything. The only thing rushing through his mind was the different scenes that could have caused the teen he knew to scream so painfully.

It was Jozu who actually kept his head together and started steering the Moby towards the vessel where their brother was being held captive. Marco’s teeth were clenched tightly and the anger flared into his eyes, a sort of subtle anger, but one that many knew was more dangerous than his more outward anger.

Everyone on the Moby was prepared, all with their weapons on hand and they were ready to kill every single marine on that vessel until they found their precious brother. And even then they would kill them all anyway, for hurting their brother in such a way that made him scream like he had nothing left.

 It was worrying to Marco to see the navy aboard the craft not preparing to battle the threat, but just sort of hanging around. They didn’t even seem to notice that the Whitebeard Pirate’s main craft was upon their starboard side. And that made the blood rush from his face, something was keeping them distracted, something was keeping their attention so strongly that they didn’t notice the large Moby.

Marco was afraid of what Ace’s scream had to do with their fascination. Were they slowly killing him on deck for the whole crew to see? Were they not going to let their headquarters know they had captures a Whitebeard Pirate?

When they got close enough for the Moby to latch on to the other boat, Marco understood their lack of movement. And the sight made every single thought save for revenge leave his mind. He completely bypassed his loud anger and slipped right into the silent anger that made people die, and die quickly.

Sprawled out in the middle of the deck of the enemy ship was Ace. Back torn and bloody, feet in an unnatural angle, and hair a mussed mess. The marine with the captain’s jacket looming over him, his hands placed on his front hips. But it was when Marco focused clearly on all the details of Ace that he truly noticed the problem.

Ace’s shorts were around his ankles and his bare ass was covered in some white substance.

**TBC**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Translation for that illiterate guy:  
> “I think he thinks he’s better than us, captain.”  
> “That’s fine, got another idea anyway. Might as well put them bullet wounds to use.”  
> “Where’d your pride go, pirate!”  
> “Think you’re better than us, don’t you, pirate?! Well you aren’t!”  
> So. That happened. As always I am here for questions and concerns~   
> See y’all next time~


	11. Not the Answers They Were Looking For

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> uhh...things happen?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I wanted to get this out on November 5 as a sort of anniversary present to myself, but I overestimated my ability to write with the TV on…so this is a little late but HAPPY TWO MONTHS GUYS!!  
> It’s hard to believe I have been consistently updating this for two months now…I’m a little speechless…  
> So this one is dedicated to Setsuyume my darling as always~ but also to a reviewer on AO3 who goes by the name Mountain97 because their review made me cry and actually helped me out in starting this chapter because I was admittedly having some problems with it…so thanks a lot love~  
> ALSO, a lot of y’all asked the same question and it’ll be answered in the beginning of this chapter~ no worries~ AND there is some scenes of violence (I think 2?) so warning for those too~ nothing too bad tho~ now without any further ado~

**SET SAIL!**

The teen was sprawled on the deck of the marine’s vessel. His ass hanging out in the open, humiliation crashing down on him in waves and the utter disparity made him want to curl into a ball and never enter the real world again. But his body hurt too much, his broken bones panging, his emotions in a complete wreck and his mind in shambles.

Ace was utterly shattered. There was no other way to describe his state of being right now. His mind was fluttering through the scenes of his last few pain filled hours. He couldn’t focus on a single memory. Nothing stuck for too long and each scene just caused a depressing numbness to spread throughout his body. He couldn’t move. He felt so…so used.

Disgusting. Dirty. Unworthy. Broken. Destroyed.

His legs twitched slightly and tears rolled down his cheeks as he felt the substance that was coating his butt slide down his inner thighs. The tears were half caused by pain and half due to relief. The pain was easily discerned as coming from the humiliation of having that marine captain ejaculating on him. The relief flowed from the fact that he was able to keep the man from penetrating him and raping him fully.

When he first felt what had to be the man’s manhood, Ace just shut down, his mind was blank, he couldn’t keep any of his thoughts. Just the stop, stop, stop he wished he could yell out. He didn’t want to have the memory of what could have happened; didn’t want his first time to be forced on him by a man who only wanted to degrade him. More than ever Ace was glad for his body’s instantaneous reaction of shutting down when his mind broke. It kept his body completely shut to the man trying to penetrate him.

The man didn’t rape him.

Ace wasn’t sure if that was enough for him to feel glad but it was enough for him to be relieved. His breaths got shallower and he could feel the blood from the slashes in his back start flowing again. He wanted to get away. He didn’t want to hear those heartless laughs anymore, he didn’t want to be subjected to this, and he would rather die than continue on with their abuse.

He heard a loud laugh and a zipper sound, the captain no doubt making himself presentable once more. The other catcalls and snickers made Ace want to sink into the floor and never be released. He just needed to be elsewhere. Somewhere his fire could shield and protect him. He needed it, craved it.

An odd noise sounded from not far off from where the teen was. His mind was still in pieces so he couldn’t figure out exactly what it was or why it happened at all, he just knew it was his chance.

With a pained groan the blind youth used his cuffed hands to pull himself forward, trying to get as far away from the marine captain as he possibly could. He powered through the pain in his fingers, the torturous way his forearms ached as he used the muscles attached to the broken bones for the first time since his arms were broken.

The tears were now dropping off his chin and no doubt staining the floor, his eyes still closed as a last line of defense. His teeth were chattering now as well, from the cold and the pain no doubt. Without the constant company of his fire the teen was freezing and he vaguely wondered if this was how his family felt when approaching a winter island, or on a spring island as the sun was setting. He never felt the unusual cold from a winter or spring island before. He had eaten the Mera Mera no Mi long before he entered the Grand Line, and despite acquiring new knowledge the teen wished he’d never had to experience it. The loss of his fire was the first blow, and the ones that followed due to his lack of fire defenses made him want to curl into a small ball and wait for death.

He felt a foot kick his own and he couldn’t hold back a cry of pain, his lip was already covered in blood from him biting it so hard and his tongue was no better. Besides, the marines already got what they wanted. He had screamed as soon as….as that happened. They won. So what was the point in being stubborn when he could comfort himself by letting the pain flow into his voice?

The same foot came down on his lower back and Ace cried out, tears falling from his closed eyes even faster than before. His whole back was completely shredded and whoever was stepping on him just got dirt into the numerous cuts that were there.

A malicious laugh reached his sensitive ears and the teen knew the person stepping on him was the dickhead captain. Didn’t the guy humiliate Ace enough? Why was he trying to prolong his torture? He got what he wanted, what more could he take from him? What else was there?!

“How. Dare. You.”

That voice was different. It wasn’t the captain’s voice but it was still filled with anger and distaste. Who-who’s was it? Was it a different crew member here to force Ace into something more painful? More humiliating?

But this voice wasn’t filled with malice like the others were, and it didn’t sound like it was directed at him. Who was it?

The foot on his back practically flew off of the teen, ripping another pained yelp from the downed teen. The man’s boot seemed to take some more of the skin off Ace’s back with him as he went flying off somewhere unknown.

Next thing the fire user knew there was a presence at his side. He didn’t know who it was because his fire was still bound but the teen would bet it was another blasted marine. Maybe one who was pissed off that the captain got to degrade him first.

Ace started scooting away from the person that was standing near him. He knew he wouldn’t get far but he felt better about trying to put up a fight even if he knew that the person would get whatever he wanted anyway.

When a hand touched the shorts around his knees he screamed.

Nononono. No. Not again. Please not again. No more. No more tries, he couldn’t take this. His mind was so fragile, he wouldn’t survive another attempt. No. He refused.

He tried scooting away, letting out cry after cry as his bones creaked and ached, with his tears trailing down his cheeks in heavy drops. He couldn’t move far, or even fast, his muscles shutting down and he just gave up and slumped onto the deck. Ace tried to curl himself into a ball to maybe protect himself but he was out of energy. He couldn’t move anymore. He was done.

The hand touched his shorts again and he flinched away but didn’t move besides that. He just slumped, done with everything. His eyelids were no longer shut tightly but instead lax, like he was going to fall asleep. The teen would admit the thought was tempting, but he couldn’t do that surrounded by enemies, he knew better than that.

So he would be awake through whatever torture he would go through next. He would survive. And he would heal himself. And he would be okay.

His thoughts made him cry harder. They were idealistic. Ace thought he’d be able to bounce back from this but he didn’t know if he could. All he went through, the teen didn’t know how to heal from that. He didn’t even know where to start.

When the hand on his shorts pulled them up, covering his lower body once more, Ace froze. Why? What was the point of doing that when he was just going to hurt him? These marines didn’t care about his dignity; in fact they seemed to revel in destroying it. So why was this one preserving it?

The teen whimpered as the hands moved to his shoulders, careful of placing his hands on places with the least amount of cuts, and the person flipped him over. Ace braced himself for the pain of making contact with the deck, but it never came. The man, and it had to be a man with those wide forearms, was cradling his back with his arm across his shoulders. It hurt, the man’s touch, but not as much as the deck would have hurt if his shredded back made contact with it.

Ace was confused. This man was so careful with him; making sure to touch him in the places with the least wounds, being attentive to all his injuries and to not jar any of his broken bones. The man’s other arm came up under his knees, holding them tightly so his ankles barely swung around.

He let out a cry anyway when he was first wrapped in those strong arms, the contact shocking his body. For the past few hours all contact was harsh and painful, the kind and soft grip was not expected and in fact made the teen a bit more wary.

This person could very well be another enemy hiding his malicious thoughts with caring gestures but the teen really couldn’t do anything about it. He could move a little but not enough to roll out of this stranger’s hold. So he had to stay put for now.

A particularly hard rock of the ship caused the man to make a heavy step forward which made Ace totter a little and attempt to find something to keep steady. The first thought, and the one the teen acted on, was to wrap his arms around this person’s neck. No greater way than to be stable than to have his cuffed arms wrapped around the guy’s neck, right? And this way if the man tried anything untoward or hurtful then Ace could just smash his face in.

It was when he swung his cuffed hands over the man’s neck to steady himself that the teen really understood what was happening.

This person had a jacket on, but that was it. Ace could feel their skin pressed together, even if it hurt having something connecting to the burns littered across his chest, the teen wanted to get closer. To stay in these arms and be safe, protected. He knew this person, this presence, this fire that now surrounded him.

They had come. His family had come to save him.

Soon tears were once again trailing down his cheeks, not from fear or pain or that odd relief from earlier, but with genuine happiness. They were here. They still loved him, cared for him. He wasn’t alone.

He slumped into Marco’s arms at that point, completely spent, emotionally, physically, and mentally. He would let them take over, he could rest now, his family had him, he was safe.

The soft fire wrapped around him tightly and Ace moaned, happy to feel flames around his body once more. They weren’t his flames but they were a very close second and at this point anything was better than the bitter cold and loneliness he had been feeling without any fire around.

The other’s head lowered, light hair tickling his face and the teen nuzzled the man’s scratchy cheeks in absolute joy. There was no greater happiness right now than being so close to the person who made him feel so many different emotions. The thought made him tear up again, gods he had to stop that, the stinging pain that came reminded Ace that his eyes were still firmly shut.

It was when the other moved his head back that Ace opened his eyes for the first time since he was taken hostage by these blasted marines. He had no doubt that he was currently gazing blankly at Marco, considering how close their heads were, there was no way his eyes could be facing anywhere else. The teen was so glad. Even as the broad man gripped him tightly in an awkward hug and jostled his wounds, Ace couldn’t keep the smile off his face.

Marco had him. He was safe.

The man started to move, walking slowly and gently, obviously trying not to cause Ace any more pain than he was already in. The teen really appreciated the gesture and hugged him tighter, tears still racing down his cheeks, only this time landing on the man’s jacket instead of the wooden deck. The fire user rested his head on the large shoulders of the other and sighed happily. Next to claiming Luffy as a brother, and accepting Whitebeard as his father, this was the happiest moment of the teen’s life.

His rescuer stopped slowly and Ace could feel the wind from the ocean pushing against his hair harder now than earlier when they were in the middle of the deck. They must be at the railing. The teen couldn’t help but wonder how many others Marco brought with him, and if whatever life boat they brought was big enough to carry them all back to the Moby.

Ace was completely and utterly stunned when the man jumped up and not down, landing on a vessel only seconds after leaving the marine’s. Did-did the whole family come? The teen rubbed his head against Marco’s neck and let out a soft cry, not up to actually speaking words. The man nuzzled him in return with his scratchy five o’clock shadow and moved his lips to the shell of Ace’s ear.

The words he spoke made the teen so relieved and happy that he just passed out, done with everything that happened today and ready for it to be a new day. A smile graced his lips as his eyes closed and he sighed softly as Marco continued on walking, no doubt taking him to the infirmary, and for once the teen couldn’t find it in himself to complain.

“We all came for you. You’re safe now. We’ve got you.”

**-this is a line dammit-**

The waves were pounding at the ship, the wind was blowing and fluttering the wisps of blonde hair on his head, there was no noise aboard the Moby. Marco’s eye were narrowed, vision tunneled. There was only one thing on his mind, only one thing he was looking at, only one thing that held importance amongst everything else.

That was Ace.

The youthful fun teen and his bright smiles that lit up the Moby with an energy that was hard to explain to outsiders. And he was hurt. He was downed. He was alone on an enemy vessel.

Marco didn’t even wait for orders, or a command, or even a sound from pops. He was off, arms fluttering into the blue and yellow wings of his phoenix, as he launched himself from the deck leaving a trail of blue fire behind him.

He wasn’t even paying attention to the captain who loomed over the ebony-haired teen. All he saw was the younger who was shaking and trying to move. He was trembling.

Vaguely the blonde heard a laugh but the man was on a mission. He was going to grab Ace and take him back. Back to the Moby, back to Pops and the others, back to safety. And no one would stop him if they wanted to live. He’d kill everyone who got in his way.

His sole focus started to move. Trembling as he used his chained arms to pull himself forward. Chained. They chained him. Like an animal. Like a prisoner. They took his freedom away. Ace should never be like this. Chained up and reduced to pulling himself with his arms. Never. The blind teen should always be free. He shined like that. Like a star placed here on earth to make life brighter.

Marco’s sight started to tint an odd red color when he noticed wet patches on the deck where Ace was once laying. Some were dark with a red tint, like stains from blood, but some were lighter with no real color, like water. Ace was crying. He was fucking crying. No one had the right to make him cry. No one. Ever.

His feet started shifting, his sharp talons spreading in preparation for an attack. His aim not any particular person on the marine vessel, just needing to cause pain to the people who thought they could hurt one of his family.

He landed on the deck lightly, barely making a sound, but it was enough to get him the attention of the marine crew. They were surprised to see him on their deck, more surprised to see the Moby behind him if their faces said anything. He would have been shocked at their lack of movement but he felt nothing but anger towards them, for changing Ace. For harming him.

The teen started to shake harder at that point, almost like a shivering, and Marco took a step forward, his talons scratching up the deck with the strength he used to hold himself back. The captain turned towards him from looking down on the slightly moving teen and he stepped back in surprise, knocking Ace’s foot as he did so.

When the young fire user let out a pained cry Marco bristled, his skin fazing from burning feathers to skin at a rapid rate. This action seemed to give the smaller captain a sort of courage and he smirked at the blonde in what he obviously thought was an intimidating manner. He took a few more steps back and then stepped right on to Ace’s bloody back.

The next cry brought forth an emotion the phoenix thought he had long since buried. Deep and utter loathing. The kind that burned people from the inside out and drove them to do things others would never even think of doing. And the laughter the man let out? It made Marco want to do onto him as he knew the man did to Ace.

Before the blonde could even think about attacking him his red-headed brother landed next to him on the ship. His eyes were blazing with the anger that was mirrored in Marco’s own blue eyes. But Thatch wasn’t like him. He didn’t have silent anger. Mostly because it was so difficult to get him angry in the first place, but if Marco’s anger was like a bubbling pit of lava, Thatch’s was a raging inferno, set to destroy everything in his path.

“How. Dare. You.”

The chef’s voice was deep and filled to the brim with anger and hate and hurt. For the marines, for the captain, and for Ace. His emotions were just pulsing off him in layers and Marco didn’t have a moment to recollect himself from the shock of feeling the normally jovial man’s hat, before the red-head pushed off from the deck and kicked the man stepping on Ace in the head. The captain’s body flying through the air to crash into the cabins.

A pained yelp from Ace redirected the seething phoenix back to the important task at hand. Getting Ace off this ship filled with enemies, and getting him healed.

He stepped silently towards the teen, his talons and wings shifting back into his human parts by the time he was standing over Ace. He was still shaking, trembling like a leaf in the wind, and it drew Marco’s eyes to the shorts around his knees. He wasn’t going to let the teen be humiliated like this anymore so he reached down, planning on pulling the shorts up to give him some decency back.

The teen started to crawl away as Marco bent over to touch the shorts, it wasn’t something the phoenix ever wanted to see. He reached out his fire racing across his arms as he tried to coat himself in something familiar to the teen. He had just touched the shorts, prepared to pull them up as fast as possible.

The scream the ripped from Ace’s throat stopped Marco in his tracks. It was filled with pain and fear, desperation and hate. The teen’s voice should never be filled with such dark emotions. Marco snatched his hand away fast at that painful scream, hoping to calm the youth that way, but Ace started pulling himself with his arms, crying out with every movement. Something must be broken there.

Ace just sort of gave up at that point, tears streaming down his cheeks, gasping for breath, and trying in vain to somehow protect himself from further harm. Marco had to clench his teeth to stop himself from yelling at Ace that he had nothing to fear, not from him, never from him. But he knew that was a horrible idea, the teen wasn’t in any sort of position to be yelled at. It wasn’t his fault.

Marco reached down again, hiding his sadness as Ace flinched from his touch but otherwise didn’t move. He’d given up. The slouched position gave it away and this was when Marco was forever grateful that they had made it here when they did. He didn’t know if it was early enough to stop the teen from being violated, but it was early enough to stop him from breaking completely.

This time the phoenix powered through his emotions, pulling the shorts up and securing them around the injured youth, taking his time to exam the slashes along his back as he did so. They were made with some tool that bound blades together. A whip or something like that, judging from the patterns he could barely see below the layers of peeled flesh. Just one more thing to put on his list of things to kill all these marines for.

His eyes travelled up the torn back, looking for some place to put his hands to turn Ace over. There really wasn’t anywhere for him to hold the teen without hurting him in some way. The scratches covered his back almost completely, save for two very small patches on his shoulders. Obviously whoever whipped him was going for damage and not coverage.

Marco placed his arm lightly across Ace’s shoulders, flipping him lightly and holding on so as to not let him touch the dirty deck floor. The cleaner he could keep the wounds the less work the nurses will have. It was when he flipped the fire user over that he felt his anger start to come back in waves.

His chest was littered with small circular burn scars. Cigarette burn scars covered so much of his front, marring those perfect muscles. And his face. They had attacked his face, if the large bruise forming on his jaw was anything to go by. If it was that big now, he could only imagine how much of his face it would cover come morning.

It took all he had to keep himself still, and helping the injured teen and not rushing after every single marine that even smelt a dash like Ace and killing them all in slow and painful ways. Sea gods knew he wanted to maim and kill every single one of them but Ace was more important. As soon as Ace was safe in the infirmary, then he would come back and wreak the havoc he so desired to.

Quickly he placed his arms under Ace’s knees, taking care to examine the teen’s lower body, trying to decide why he didn’t just get up and run. The discoloration and the bruises prominent on the Ace’s small ankles answered Marco’s question, someone had broken them to make sure the kid would stay where he was. Either as a precaution or he had tried to escape and it was a punishment. Out of the two, Marco dearly wished it was the latter.

Still he wrapped Ace up in his arms and stood, stressing a little at the cry the teen had let out. He didn’t hurt him did he? Was there some other injury to his legs he simply didn’t notice? Was he not careful enough?

He pretended the youngster in his arms was made of glass, holding him lightly but firmly, trying to decide what made the teen cry out. At that point the sea gods must have decided to hate Marco because a particularly large wave hit the vessel, throwing him off balance enough that he had to take a heavy step forwards, Ace tottering in his grip slightly.

It was a surprise when the teen swung his cuffed arms up and over his head, holding on to him almost for dear life. It was a nice feeling. And even nicer one when Ace pressed against his chest, apparently disregarding his injuries in order to get closer to Marco.

The tears that flowed from the teen’s eyes shortly after made the phoenix want to cuddle Ace in his arms always, protecting him and guarding him, in a way only he could do properly. And almost in accordance to Marco’s thoughts, the teen slumped, seemingly well aware that he was safe and protected.

The man responded by releasing some of his feathers, the flames caressing and cocooning Ace in their loving embrace, intent on keeping him here with them forever. Not that Marco was particularly complaining about that, he’d love to have the fiery teen with him forever. Especially after the moan he let out after feeling the flames.

He must be missing his own. First things first when back on the Moby, remove the damn seastone shackles on the teen’s wrists. The gods knew how horrible it was to wear those blasted things, especially when they were on someone who should be free, like Ace. But that moan worried him. What if he was hurt somewhere and the flames touched it?

He bent his head down close to Ace’s head, wanting to check to make sure that he was, in fact, okay, and was surprised by the teen nuzzling up to him, almost purring as he rubbed their cheeks together. He didn’t expect the tears that followed either, but that was okay. He deserved the chance to let all the pain out in some sort of healthy way that didn’t involve maiming the perpetrators.

It was as he was pulling his head back that he caught a glimpse of what he really wanted to see. Not the teen whole but broken, not the skin, nor the hair, or the clothes. No. Marco wanted to see those unique hazy grey eyes. The ones that even though they were unseeing, could still see through everything around him.

The sight of those eyes soothed Marco in a way no one else would ever be able to. Just looking into the gorgeous irises, gazing into them, prompted the phoenix inside to sing to a lighter tune, no longer wanting to cry out a war song for revenge.

A large smile splitting its way across the ebony-haired teen made Marco squeeze him, hug him with all the strength he could because he did it. He had Ace. He was okay.

He practically chanted those words to himself as he took the first step towards the Moby, ignoring Thatch and Izou as they corralled the marines into one place. He was completely focused on the teen in his arms and the tears that fell on his jacket. He was going to get Ace back to the Moby, free him of those blasted shackles, and then take him to the infirmary where hopefully the nurses will be able to tell him the extent of the damages.

He kept walking, blankly putting Ace’s gestures to the back of his mind to think on later, he only wanted to get him to the Moby. That was the first step, and they couldn’t get to the all-important healing step without being on the large ship.

Marco barely hesitated when he reached the railing of the marine vessel, more focused on making sure that Ace was secure and wouldn’t jostle too much as he made his way over to the awaiting crew up on the main deck. After that it was just a quick jump to the Moby.

Ace hugged him tighter as he landed. Going as far as to nuzzle his head into Marco’s thicker neck, a soft cry being released as he did so, a soft cry the phoenix could easily identify as one of gratitude and safety. So he did the only thing he could think of and he rubbed the teen’s head with his own chin, careful not to touch the bruise on his face.

He lent down further after comforting his passenger, mouthing over the shell of Ace’s ear, leaning close enough to tell the teen something that would calm him down immensely, maybe even put him to sleep.

“We all came for you. You’re safe now. We’ve got you.”

Marco started walking a little at that point, smiling when the soft snores of Ace answered him. Good. This meant the teen would be sleeping while Marco worked on releasing him from those blasted cuffs and then proceeding to beat the shit out of every single marine on that vessel.

His thoughts were filled with anger and rage again, no longer having the pretty teen awake to distract him from his anger. Marco called Haruta over loudly, knowing if anyone could pick the locks of the seastone cuffs, it’d be her.

To his utter surprise she was already there by his side, her tools held tightly in each hand and her face an expression of calmed anger. It was an odd look for her but Marco wouldn’t say it was misplaced. She looked like a vengeful goddess. Good.

“Can you pick them?” he asked urgently, holding Ace in such a way that the skilled lock pick could have a good hold on the wrists without hurting the teen further. She gave him a look in response that clearly said, ‘Of course I can, you idiot.’

Marco decided this was probably a good time to check what the rest of the family was doing, considering his focus had been getting Ace to safety the last few minutes. He let his eyes wander from the sleeping face of his the teen he was slowly falling for and instead looked over the deck of the Moby.

It was a flurry of activity; cannons being loaded and aimed, a few members making their way towards him and Ace, Pops standing by the railing, looking down on the marine ship with a look of anger. Those marines were not going to make it off that ship alive. Not with the amount of anger present on the face of every single Whitebeard pirate.

From there his gaze travelled to the other deck, the one full of the marines who thought they could harm their youngest and get away with it. To his shock and surprise it only took Thatch and Izou to round the whole crew up into a single crowd in the middle of the deck. Izou in particular seemed to strike fear into the hearts of the marines. It made him briefly wonder what he did to scare those navy bastards so thoroughly.

All those thoughts were expelled from his mind as the teen in his arms let out a loud cry, echoing across both ships, stopping all movement. Next thing he knew Ace’s delicious fire spread out from the younger, coating the deck in flames and even reaching across the ocean to caress against Thatch and Izou.

It was a wonder to the whole crew, having only been touched briefly by those flames. They had never felt what he, Thatch, and Izou had. The love and affections those flames carried, the protection it offered freely, the care that was taken to not hurt any of them. The family’s faces were all now one of wonderment, each looking at the figure in Marco’s lap with unconditional adoration.

Marco himself looked down at Ace, curious to see why he might have woken up, only to see that he was still snoring away, his posture more relaxed now that the seastone cuffs were off. It said something about how exhausted the teen was that he could fall asleep while so uncomfortable.

It also said something for how safe he felt in Marco’s arms and in the presence of the family that he was able to fall asleep when still vulnerable. It was something everyone took note of, something they felt pride in. That the once so defensive teen had warmed up to them so much to trust them to take care of him when he couldn’t do it himself. It was uplifting.

They started moving with a renewed vigor, paying careful attention to not trod over the flames sporadically coating the deck. It seemed now that they felt them and the emotions they carried they were going to treat them like a direct extension of Ace, much how Pops did on his first contact with them.

The flames started to retreat at that point, caressing everyone it came in contact with once more before returning to Ace. It fluttered around him, close to Marco, pressing up against him and calling his phoenix to the surface. Marco followed its wants, letting his arms shift slightly, only coating them with the blue fire and not transforming them fully into wings.

The teen’s fire responded positively to the change by expanding to cover him completely; covering him in a warm red fire blanket, one that made the phoenix inside positively sing. It felt like home. Being wrapped so tightly in Ace’s fire, it called to him, reacted to him, loved him. It made Marco want to shift completely into his other form and just bask, to enjoy the feeling fire gave him every time he changed into a phoenix.

But Ace’s fire was different from all the other fires he burnt in. No fire had ever been able to make Marco feel like this while he was still a man. They called to him, sure, but none of them ever made the phoenix feel as if he had to turn that second and melt into the flames that flickered and tickled at his skin. It was a feeling he was sure he’d grow to enjoy.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, tilting his head back as he fully gave in to the feeling of that fire. His breaths came slowly, rhythmically releasing and taking in air. He felt so at peace.

Slowly, ever so slowly, he opened his eyes again, gazing into the ever blue of the sky above. There weren’t any clouds up there. Completely empty of any fluffy fliers. It brought a new sense of duty to Marco. Ace was safe, now it was time for him to be avenged.

He tilted his head down, gazing one last time at the beautiful face of the sleeping teen, reaching a hand out to brush his black hair away from those breathtaking eyes. Ace needed to go to the infirmary, but Marco needed to show these marines why no one messes with their family. Especially not their youngest.

Marco glanced up, spotting Vista nearby, running to and from the railing and Pops, obviously relaying to the old man what Thatch and Izou were doing. Well he could get someone else to do it.

“Vista!”

The mustached man turned around instantly, looking at Marco with surprise lightly sprinkled across his visage. He obviously didn’t expect to be called while he was doing something for Pops, but he started heading towards Marco anyway. Probably thought it was something really important if the first mate would pull him away from the captain.

“Can I help you, commander?”

The Moby was in battle mode, titles being used, and formalities being followed, when normally the Whitebeards didn’t bother. That’s fine. Made this easier for Marco to ask.

“Please take Ace to the infirmary, and stay with him until either I come to you or he wakes up, in which case please come get me.” Marco kept himself polite and tight, knowing that it would get through to Vista just how upset he was at the moment. It was not something he did often, in fact he can only remember two other times he slipped into such a tone.

Judging by the swift way Vista nodded and held out his arms, the man obviously understood the urgency in Marco’s voice and movements. Good. The phoenix handed the teen off only a little reluctantly, wanting to stay with him while the nurses gave him a look over, but also wanting to get the revenge the teen deserved. This was for the best.

Marco watched as Vista carried the delicate looking teen towards the stairs leading down into the cabins, and further on into the infirmary no doubt. But he turned away as soon as he could no longer see Vista’s tall top hat.

It was if a switch had been pulled at that point. Nothing was stopping him now. Not from the overwhelming amount of anger that had been piling up in him since he discovered Ace on the deck of the marine ship. Now he could let it out. Let them witness the anger of the phoenix.

He stood from his position, twisting around to glare at the railing like it offended him. One foot was placed in front of the other, and he was on his way. Stalking towards the other boat like a predator, visions filtering through his head of all the ways he could force the marines to go through the same pain Ace had dealt with.

He was on the other deck in moments, his fire fluttering along his arms and shoulders, a physical manifestation of his anger and hate. His eyes were glaring holes into every single marine on that boat, taking special care to spend extra time glaring at the man decked out in the uniform of the captain. He was the one standing over Ace. He was the one who was going to get it the worst.

“This is his hair…”

Izou’s voice echoed across the deck, and Marco looked over at the man where he was squatting down, touching something on the floor.

“What was that, hun?” Thatch spoke quietly, his voice still carrying across the air to everyone present due to the sudden silence from both ships. The phoenix took a moment to swallow the fact that Izou and Thatch were now close enough to use nicknames like that.

The okama twirled around, anger alight on his face. He looked like an evil spirit. With how upset he was and the look on his face, if Marco wasn’t as upset as he was he would have been scared of him. He held up a dainty hand, clutched in it was a bundle of dark ebony hair, just long enough to reach over either side of the fist that held it. Cut hairs.

“YOU CUT HIS HAIR!” the sixteenth commander yelled out, his voice halting all movements on the Moby Dick, every single family member watching the goings on on the marine ship.

“Babe, calm down, you-”

“DON’T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN!” Izou yelled, whipping his head around to face Thatch, his anger still entirely present and the chef responded by throwing his arms up in a placating gesture and backing off a little. The normally sweet commander was well past angry, and both Marco and Thatch knew to back off when he got like this.

Noticing that Marco and Thatch were giving him space, Izou once again flipped around to glare at the marines all nestled against the cabin walls of their boat. They were terrified of the feminine man, and no Whitebeard pirate would blame them, Izou looked ridiculously terrifying right now.

“This was his protection! This was how he kept himself safe! And you assholes CUT IT OFF!”

He drew one of his pistols from the holster on his left hip and fired it at one of the crew members, getting him right in the side of the throat. It wasn’t a miss, Izou aimed for that specific spot because he knew that that was the spot where the man would have the most pain as he bled out.

Not a single one of the marines moved to help their fallen comrade and it made every single pirate present curl their lips in disgust. And the navy was supposed to be the path of the righteous. What was so righteous about leaving a fallen crew mate to die?

Surprisingly Izou still didn’t look satisfied, and as he was aiming at another person a blonde guy in the back spoke up.

“Come on, ya blighters! It was just some bloody hair! Big deal!” oh this guy was asking to get dead.

Izou seemed to have the same mindset because he marched right in to the mob of marines, grabbed the taller, broader, blonde by his own hair and pulled him out to center deck. He wasn’t being particularly careful and it wasn’t more apparent until the okama through the man on the floor, some of his light hair staying in Izou’s grasps. That had to have hurt.

Marco moved over to stand by Thatch’s side as they let this vindictive version of their friend, in Thatch’s case maybe more than friend, deal the punishment he felt fit to the crime.

Izou had always liked Ace’s hair, didn’t care for the way he hid his eyes, but he loved the teen’s smooth ebony locks. To him, cutting it was an attack on the other’s person, on his confidence, and on his hiding method. It was how he hid his eyes from the world, keeping them behind that veil of black fringe. It was a slight worthy of death, in the man’s mind.

“You must have been the one to cut it then.” Izou spoke calmly, his gun trained steadily on the rugged man’s chest. The guy was just about shaking in his boots as he looked up the barrel of one of the okama’s favored pistols. But he still seemed to think he had some control of this confrontation because when he spoke again his voice was still saturated with arrogance.

“So what if I did. The fag was hidin’ somethin’. I was just, ah, given him incentive to share with the group, aye, lads?” he obviously expected his crew to say something judging by his shocked glance back at them when only silence met his words.

Izou didn’t wait though. He shot the bragging blonde in the left shoulder, right under the clavicle bone. The screams that the man let out reached each Whitebeard pirate and caused them to smirk, all approving of the kimono-clad man’s use of force.

“I was just sayin’ facts! Why dya shoot me!” the man screamed again, clutching the wound with his right hand, obviously trying to staunch blood flow. Well he couldn’t have been too stupid if he knew how to react to a gunshot wound. Izou didn’t seem to care, just moved his pistol and shot the man in the right thigh, blood spurting out and arching across the deck, leaving a rather nasty trail of blood.

This time though Izou didn’t let the man scream, just took a breath before shooting the blonde in the abdomen, right above his hip. Barely hesitating as he shot the left ear clean off the man’s head.

The marine was a bloody mess. Rolling over the deck trying to clutch at all his wounds at once. The man was going to die. With all those holes and no way to stop the blood flow, it was just a matter of time before he stopped breathing entirely. But that wasn’t enough for the okama.

He took a step closer to the gasping bleeding man, kneeling down and placing the muzzle of his gun right on the ribcage. Knowing Izou like Marco did, it was most likely placed between ribs. The man was aiming to deflate the lung, his preferred method of killing someone. The feminine man wanted people to know that he killed this one, that’s why he was killing him in his signature manner. He wanted the wound to be a sign that said “Yes! Sixteenth Commander Izou killed this one!”

A slight sigh was the only sign before he pulled the trigger.

Izou stood back up, looking down on the now gasping man on the deck, his eyes showing no remorse or even a little guilt. He even went as far to step on the man’s face with his _geta_.

“You still haven’t suffered enough for the pain you caused my Ace. But it’s good enough, you cur.”

Marco didn’t noticed Thatch moving until he was right behind the angry okama, larger arms wrapping around his chest, pulling him into a hug; he was too focused on the fact Izou called Ace his, and wondering what the other man meant by that. The chef covered the slighter man’s eyes and lent down to whisper into the other’s ear. Whatever he said seemed to calm the sharpshooter down a bit from the ledge he was on, and Thatch pulled him back towards were Marco was still standing.

The blonde stopped moving at that point, his eyes staring blankly at a spot on the deck; one with a dark red stain. The place where Ace was laying in his own blood and fluids when Marco rescued him. Well at least the marine died with regret.

“What are you criminals getting so upset about? It was just hair.”

It was a faceless marine in a huge crowd of them that spoke, but still Izou got angry, completely prepared to shoot another one of them to death. His other pistol was still full, so Marco wouldn’t put it past him. But the phoenix didn’t want to watch his brother do something like that again to such worthless trash, so the blonde stuck a hand out, stopping the man in his tracks.

This time it was Marco that stepped forward. His head raised and firm, well aware of all eyes on him, both marine and pirate. And vaguely in his mind he apologized to Ace, but he knew it would only be a matter of time before the information he was about to share would come out. The teen probably didn’t want to hide from his family, not anymore, and not after he let his fire out to touch every crew member.

“You think you are strong.” His voice was flat, no emotion, no tone variation, no sign of actually belonging to a human.

The captain snorted at the statement, almost laughing out loud. Marco didn’t doubt the other thought it was a hilarious statement. He attacked a member of the Whitebeard pirates, knowingly. Ace wasn’t wearing a shirt, so there was no way this idiotic marine could have missed the large Jolly Roger on the teen’s back. So they attacked, cuffed, and tortured Ace while they knew which crew he belonged to. They had to think they were strong if they thought they could get away with that.

“The injuries on that toy proves that we are strong.”

Marco’s eyebrow twitched violently at the man calling Ace a toy, but he kept his cool, knowing that his revenge would be over as soon as he lost control of his anger. The man was just trying to back up his words with false bravado. He’d come crumbling down soon enough.

“You tortured a pirate while he was chained. How is that power? How is that strength?” Marco asked, actually curious as to how the captain would answer the question. Mostly because he wanted to know how they did catch Ace.

“Hah. He was the arrogant one. He did not think a bullet could hurt him, did not even try to dodge it. Or the second one after he realized we could shoot him.”

Seastone bullets? Since when did the navy start creating seastone bullets? Marco’s next words came out without any filtering, the phoenix didn’t even stop to think about what he was saying.

“That’s because he couldn’t see it.”

“What?” the captain looked confused, brown eyebrows knitting, green eyes sparking with a curiosity Marco himself often felt. Well that meant they didn’t know Ace was blind then.

“You feel powerful and strong, because you took down a Whitebeard pirate.” Thatch spoke instead of the blonde first mate. Probably a good idea because he was a bit addled at the moment, trying to think about whether or not this was the right course of action.

“Of course! What marine wouldn’t!”

Marco stopped holding back at that point and punched the man right in the face, not holding back any of his strength as he did so. His mind stopped working at that point, the only thing he knew for sure was that he had to keep punching this, this beast. Had to give this man the punishment Ace couldn’t. How dare he?! HOW DARE HE?!

“You think you’re strong! You think you’re tough!” He punched him in the stomach, causing blood to spray out his mouth. The captain made to drop to the floor but Marco held onto him by his jacket, keeping him upright with his left hand as he continued to do damage with his right.

“You weakened him with seastone! SEASTONE BULLETS!” A right hook to the captain’s jaw, followed by left-right jabs to the abdomen before Marco had to catch the man by his collar. He followed up with a knee into the stomach, causing the other man to puke a little. It didn’t bother the phoenix at all, he was too far gone in his revenge plot now.

“You took it away from him!” A roundhouse kick to the head with a half transformed talon caused the beaten man to fly a ways away on the deck. All eyes were on the blond first mate as he stalked his way over to the bloody and bruised brunet , his feet both changing into that of the large talons of his phoenix side. Blue fire flicked along his arms as he reached the downed man, reaching down with flamed hands to lift the captain into the air.

“You took his fire! You left him vulnerable!” Marco slammed his forehead right into the other’s nose, smirking maliciously as he pulled back and noticed it was broken. Good. More pain for the man to go through. Ace had to go through so much more and he couldn’t see during the whole thing. Nothing Marco did to this captain, or to any of the other marines will ever make up for the hell the fire using teen was sure to have gone through.

“You took away his safety!” His voice was harsh now, gravely and hoarse. He wasn’t used to talking this much to someone, let alone this loudly. Marco couldn’t even remember the last time he was yelling so loudly. Sure he got aggravated at Haruta’s pranks but he never raised his voice this high, not even with the horrible bird insults Thatch came up with.

“Marco…” speak of the devil. The chef’s hand was placed warmly on the broad shoulder of the first division commander. The phoenix’s mind cleared slightly at the sound of his brother’s soothing tones. Maybe the reason he hated the bird jokes so much was because the phoenix really liked the sound of Thatch’s voice but was too prideful to say anything about it. Maybe he’d tell him one day that his phoenix wanted to peck his eyes out for some of the insults the chef had spouted.

“Don’t stop me, Thatch.” Marco murmured. His voice was quieter, but no doubt still carrying to the ear of every single family member on the Moby Dick’s deck. But that was okay with the blonde. They were family. They deserved to know why what these marines did to Ace was so unforgivable; beyond the obvious of him being a Whitebeard son and under the protection of all of them.

“I wasn’t going to stop you, brother.” Well that was a sign of Thatch’s sincerity. The man never called anyone by the title ‘brother’ unless he really wanted to show his support or give them some advice. Marco hoped it’d be the latter. He didn’t want any advice right now.

“Just don’t kill him too soon. Keep going as you were and we wouldn’t have made him suffer for what he did to Ace.”

That made sense to Marco. Too much internal bleeding would end the captain’s punishment long before it was due. No more punching then. Pity too. The man was an excellent punching bag.

“You, and your crew, felt strong and powerful attacking a bound pirate.” Marco stated, shaking the slightly dozing captain in his arms. The man wouldn’t die until the Whitebeard family delivered enough punishment. And he was nowhere near completing his sentence.

“Not only that…” Marco started, dragging the half conscious man back to the rest of the marines, his voice raising so that every single person could hear him. It didn’t matter if this crowd of navy cronies knew Ace’s secret, they were all going to die anyway. The only guilt he felt about sharing this secret was that it was the teen’s to share, and he wouldn’t get to do that because of these fuckheads.

“You got OFF on beating and torturing a disabled sailor!”

There was barely a breath of pause before Marco continued shouting. Letting all present hear the wrongs the marine crew had committed. Letting them know what cowards they were, how pathetic they were, and how weak they were. All with one sentence.

“He’s blind, asshole!”

**TBC**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAHA~ I really love cliffhangers~ don’t you?  
> Now this ain’t a plot to get y’all to review but I just wanted to let y’all know that I accidentally put in a sort of quote from one of my all-time favorite Christmas movies~ (I was watching it as I wrote some of this actually~) and whoever can guess the movie and the quote will get to choose a scenario for me to write during the next cut scene chapter (no idea when that is…but it’ll be coming~) and it can be anything~ (except smut between MarcoAce or a confession scene cause that’s not a cut scene~) it could be a Thatch x Izou moment, some parental Whitebeard, other crew interactions, a scene with one of my OCs, just about anything~ but I highly doubt any of you will find it but I figured I’d give y’all the benefit of the doubt~
> 
> With that out of the way~ TATA!! I shall see y’all next time my sweets~ and again feel free to ask me any questions, or concerns~ I will try and answer them to the utmost of my abilities!!


	12. Welcome to the Brig

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay. First things first. Never will I ever put this story to bed. I will always continue it until the point where it is done. I will not abandon it, discontinue it, nor will I purposefully put it on hiatus.  
> That being said, I am a real person. I have real problems, and real life. I do not revolve around this computer. Let me list the shit I have gone through since my last update. I had final papers and projects for all 5 of my classes, then I had finals week, 3 days after finals I moved, a week after that (which I spent unpacking the kitchen and living areas and lived in a room of boxes) my grandparents came to visit and didn’t leave until New Years, I also had Christmas in that time, then I had to deal with two of my friends contemplating suicide, then I had a huge bout of depression and was barely able to get out of bed, school started for me this past week, and then I had to deal with that, and finally my Dad wants to meet with me tomorrow for the first time since last March.  
> So. Nowhere did I have time to write, but I did. I had almost 12k of this done before the end of December, my issue? I couldn’t write the last bit of this chapter, it escaped me. I woke up today so pumped and HAPPY for once that I was like “today, it’ll be done today.” And it technically is despite it being almost 2 in the morning here.  
> So I would like to sincerely apologize for the wait, I really did not mean for it to take this long, but things happen. Thank y’all for being so patient and still loving this story despite my inability to write it swiftly, I love y’all.  
> This is dedicated to: Setsu, my darling, Mountain97, for being awesome, InspiringLight, for also being awesome, and to AlucardLovesSteakCakes for being a sweetie this past week. The rest of you are all also awesome as well!! (one particular cutie, Marty Rae, who thought I haven’t updated since 2005, really made me smile dear~)  
> Enjoy please~  
> WARNING: A large majority of this is retribution. Lots of blood, gore and so on. The beginning is rather important so please read that, along with the last paragraph. But you’ll be able to tell when it switches to retribution, so please do not read it if it makes you uncomfortable.  
> Enjoy it!!

**SET SAIL!**

The harsh quiet that assaulted Marco’s ears made him regret the words as soon as they left his mouth. It wasn’t his secret to tell, there wasn’t a real reason to tell it, and he had just broken the trust of his youngest brother whom he was also crushing on.

Marco felt like his body was shut down from everything else. He had worked himself up into frenzy over the horrible wrongs these marines had done to Ace and he got so angry he blurted out the teen’s secret.

Maybe the family did need to know about the fire using teen’s disability, maybe it did help convey just how serious the marine’s crimes were, but that didn’t mean that Marco had to be the one to tell them that. Hell, the phoenix may be beyond furious because of the fact but that didn’t mean the others would be as well.

Great, now he doubted his own family. This was why Marco tried not to let his emotions take over, or rule him, like they do for others. He did stupid things when he was on an emotional high, like when he was beating up the marine captain.

Well he had made his bed, now he had to lie in it.

The sounds of waves lapping against the hull of both ships and the wind whistling in his ears brought a sort of false peace to his mind. He knew he had to be calm for whatever happened next but that changed nothing about how messed up he was from revealing Ace’s secret. The moment of peace did, however, offer him some much needed time to reorganize his thoughts into something a little more manageable.

Of course no amount of ordering or thinking could have truly prepared him for the response he got next, certainly not considering who, exactly, responded first.

“What?”

The old man’s voice was soft and hard at the same time, carrying across the winds to reach the ear of every pirate, every marine, everyone on both decks heard the man. And everyone felt the same tremble of fear shoot down their spines at the dire tone pops’ voice took. This wasn’t going to be pretty.

“Ace is blind, pops.”

Pops huffed and suddenly it was quite obvious that that was not the answer he was looking for.

“I got that, son. What do you mean by blind?”

“Ace can’t see, pops.” Izou spoke up, his soft voice a surprise from the righteous fury he was displaying earlier when showing that marine where his place was. His face lifted up from his place by Thatch, though a hand stayed firmly attached to the chef’s jacket hem. “He never could.”

Pops’ head swung to stare at the two, his face relatively passive. However his eyes were alight with the worry, care, and anger that came from finding something like this out about one of his own sons. Well let’s hope he understood why Ace decided to keep such a secret from the rest of the family.

“That’s not possible.” Haruta’s voice was loud, reverberating through Marco’s ears like a wind chime. She didn’t sound angry, just disbelieving. That had to be a good sign right?

“No it’s true. Ace can’t see anything.” It was Thatch that responded this time, his tone giving away his reluctance to speak on the subject. The gods knew Marco didn’t want to either, but damn his mouth for disconnecting from his brain and yelling in anger.

“No!” It was Jozu yelling now, his face showing only worry and no hate. “He looked at me whenever we spoke together! He can’t be blind!”

“He was never looking at you, Jozu. He was just facing you.” Izou spoke again, keeping it light and trying not to agitate anyone, but also hoping to get the point across that the teen was in fact blind.

Out of all the reactions Marco was thinking could happen, outright denial was not very high on the list of what the family would respond with. Anger, yes. Worry, concern, disbelief, shock. All possible, and all seemed more likely to occur than denial. The signs seemed so obvious to the phoenix, but then again, he had known Ace was blind since the very first day he woke up on the ship.

“He covered his eyes.”

Namur’s sharp voice reached his ears. It was as if the fishman was standing right next to him and conversing, something he is sure the others felt as well. The hand-to-hand combat master seemed to have the vocal ability to be able to sound like he is everywhere at once, yet only stand in one place. It was really cool most of the time. Now though, it was almost an unwelcome ability.

However it was nice to have all eyes on the fishman, if just to get a breather in for himself. He needed to set his head back on straight. He’d break the news to Ace later, and abide by whatever punishment the teen saw fit, but right now he needed to explain to his family and get revenge. His and Ace’s.

“With his bangs, that’s why Izou was so upset about that marine cutting it.”

“Yes.” Marco answered Namur this time, knowing it’d be easier for the family to digest when the information came from just one source, and not four or five.

“Ace covered his eyes because they gave away his inability to see.” The phoenix took a deep breath and shifted his gaze from family member to family member, hopefully imparting the importance of what he was saying.

“His eyes are clouded and hazy, yoi. A grey milky color, just a glance and you can tell there is something off about his eyes.” Every word sent a stake deeper and deeper into his heart, his phoenix side cooing at him in encouragement. But still Marco could not help but feel the deep betrayal he was causing Ace as the teen slept on unaware.

“He doesn’t face straight at you, his head is turned slightly so he can hear your movements and react quickly.” Marco started to zone out now, his voice carrying on in its normal flat tone, thinking about how Ace might be doing right now.

“His fire will wrap lightly around your feet or stay floating a bit around it, so if you move he can move as well, yoi.”

“When he eats he’ll slide his hands around on the table top to make a mental image of the locations of the plate, the silverware, and the tankard.”

“A hand is on every wall of the ship as he walks around, to guide him so no one gets suspicious about his fire constantly floating about, yoi.”

“Using his fire he can create impressions in his mind to identify people.”

“Touching anything with his hands is a way to solidify the images given to him by his fire, yoi.”

“He is careful in every fight so that no enemy will see his eyes, know his disability, or move his bangs in anyway. He fights half distracted because most of his focus is set on keeping his blindness a secret, yoi.”

“He tends to tilt his head down, so that there is less of a chance of the wind flipping up his bangs.”

Marco took a deep breath, shuddering as he wracked his mind for any other clues that gave away the teen’s lack of sight. He didn’t want to leave anything out. Now that he had shared Ace’s secret, it was better to tell all of it so the teen wouldn’t have to be unnecessarily interrogated.

“Oh my gods.”

Haruta’s voice was a sharp knife through his thoughts. Her voice high pitched, and…scared? What on earth would she be scared about? Ace has been doing just fine this whole time; the family knowing wasn’t going to suddenly make him incompetent.

“We are horrible family members!”

Marco was completely and utterly surprised when tears actually started to slip down her cheeks as she spoke. Her words shocked the phoenix something fierce as well. The Whitebeard Pirates were the best family members in the world. What could Marco have said that would make Haruta, of all people, say something so wrong?

“What?” Obviously Thatch thought the same thing if the disbelief in his tone was anything to go by.

Haruta responded by turning a tear stained face towards the chef, her light eyes gazing at him while lost in thought. There was something deep to what she was about to share, something that would make the family start to feel bad.

There was a good reason why the woman was in charge of the intelligence division. She could deduce things from the smallest facts, and deduce them correctly. It was why a lot of the time she got away with her pranks. No one wanted to be on her bad side. Her pranks were relatively harmless, her retaliation was not.

“We didn’t notice.” She spoke, her voice easily bringing Marco out of his musings. And it made sense now why she thought they were horrible siblings.

“You couldn’t have-” Izou spoke up, no doubt trying to sooth her, but she cut him off fairly quickly.

“Don’t make excuses for us, Izou!” tears no longer trailed down her face, and once again anger took its rightful place. This was going to be either incredibly enlightening, or entirely too depressing, and for once Marco was worried about which it’ll be.

“We claimed him as our little brother! He’s ours! OURS! We know loads of weird things about each other!” Haruta was yelling now, her breaths coming fast but fairly even.

“Pops prefers Daiginjo sake because its fragrance is higher than most and it soothes him! Marco loves to sit in the sun and just enjoy the heat as a phoenix! Jozu has a deep love for soft things! Thatch really loves the look and feel of kimonos! Vista hates his room smelling like flowers! Blamenco has a girlfriend on one of our islands in South Blue!

Rakuyo will sing to himself when he’s alone to pass the time! Namur has to touch sea water four times before going on land! Blenheim meticulously shaves his mustache away every morning with a specialty bought shaving cream! Curiel will only turn on his music during a battle and even then it’s only classical! Kingdew’s haircut started off as a revenge scheme but he liked it so much he never bothered to change it!

I love to dress up in a skirt or dress when I bother to go into town! Atmos’ armor came from his mother and not his father! Jiru likes his nickname but sometimes he feels like it’s an insult! Fossa only smokes Lonsdale cigars with dried mint leaves in them because otherwise the taste is too strong! And Izou actually has days where he doesn’t wear make-up because it is too much of a hassle!

The Artist is actually a really nice guy! Ankana respects everyone on this crew to a point of being completely prepared to die for us! Gunner really wishes he wasn’t as good with guns as he is because he hates killing! Evelyn is afraid of needles even though she is the nurse in charge of injections! And head nurse Ariana is actually the Artist’s half-sister!”

At this point Haruta took a huge gulp of air, and everyone else was staring at her sort of blankly, sort of in shock. No one expected the slew of random facts about everyone on the Moby…

“We all know these things. No matter how weird they are! No matter how well hidden we try to keep them, we always found out!” The tears were back again and Marco was sure to get dizzy from trying to process everything that Haruta was saying.

“YET NO ONE KNEW ACE WAS BLIND BESIDES MARCO, IZOU, AND THATCH!”

Complete silence greeted her final words. It was the most she had said in one sitting without bounding off at one point or another because of her short attention span. And hell, when she says things like that it does sound like they were horrible family members. And when Marco slid his gaze across everyone else’s he was actually surprised to see how much guilt was on their faces. Did they really think it was their fault for not noticing?

“I knew he was blind.” Ankana piped up from his place by The Artist, who promptly smacked him upside the head. Obviously the man did not know when to keep his mouth shut.

“You were his old first mate, if you didn’t know I would throw you overboard.” Haruta’s sour tone wasn’t completely unexpected but it still made Ankana’s eyes to widen slightly and shuffle a little to where he was more behind The Artist than not.

“Haruta.”

Izou was trying again, and when the little devil turned her head to face the okama, Marco was sure he’d be shot down. But the feminine man didn’t let Haruta speak, just stared her down with a face too serious for someone as loving as Izou was.

“Ace is very private. He didn’t want to be here, he didn’t trust us, and Marco, Thatch, and I only found out not because we connected the dots or anything, but because Ace slipped up. Which he hardly ever does.” A slight breath, and a quick closing of eyes before Izou locked eyes with every member of the Whitebeard family.

“Marco found out when Ace was being careless. He had just woken up on a strange ship, he wasn’t focused on staying hidden, and he was in a bad emotional place. I found out because I was nosy and wanted to see his whole beautiful face. He didn’t know what I was doing until I moved his bangs out of the way. Thatch found out when he was saving me and Ace from drowning. His hair was plastered to his face and couldn’t cover his eyes.

All accidents. All because of lapses in Ace’s strong defense. If Marco hadn’t told everyone now, no one would have noticed until Ace himself decided to tell.”

Izou looked away from the crowd of family, off towards the slowly setting sun, a deep scowl set on his normally happy face. If anyone was surprised by Thatch wrapping an arm around the kimono-clad man’s waist they didn’t say anything. A deep breath and Izou was speaking again, his face still turned away, and his voice hard.

“But I’m glad Marco told you all. Now you know. Ace went through all that pain, all that torture, with no sight, and enhanced senses.” His eyes were now alight with a sparkling flame of vengeance, one that Marco couldn’t stop from igniting the flames normally dormant inside of his phoenix. He was starting to feel the adrenaline as it coursed its way back through his body.

Some of his blue feathers started springing from his skin, their flames warming Marco in a pleasant way that now reminded him of Ace. He couldn’t wait to feel the teen’s fires meshing with his own, couldn’t wait to tell the ebony-haired youth exactly what he thought of him. It will definitely take Marco a while to earn Ace’s forgiveness for revealing his blindness to the crew; but if he ever did, he was determined to confess his feelings at that time. It was odd to think about but with the phoenix’s soft coos in the back of his head, he knew it was the right choice.

With a twist of his neck, and a slight jerk some feathers flipped out from the skin on his neck, and Marco made quite the sight. At least he thought he did.

His feet were replaced with his large talons, the individual claws flexing and digging into the slightly damp wood of the navy vessel’s deck. Both his arms were completely coated in flaming blue feathers, pointing slightly over his fingers to look like his normal wings but still give him the mobility of fingers. The feathers also took place of his jacket, curling and whisping down his back in no particular pattern, but giving off a feel of power. His chest stayed mostly bare, the tufts of feathers only swirling around his navel area, keeping his familial mark on proud display.

It was his preferred form to fight in, and all enemies who saw it, never lived to tell anyone about it.

“We aren’t done with revenge yet. You can save your contemplations and your self-hatred for some other time. This is about Ace.” Izou’s voice tickled his phoenix’s sensitive ears, causing him to let out a soft coo. Something he rarely did, but his phoenix was almost filled with joy; thoughts of all the ways to pay these assholes back filtered through his mind. It was difficult to decide where to start.

“Marco had to carry him back over here.” Namur spoke, his voice no longer quiet, but now loud and confident. Good. Izou’s words must have gotten through to them. They could mourn their inability to notice Ace’s blindness later, right now it was revenge time.

“Someone injured his ankles.” Kingdew replied to the fishman, moving through the crowd to stand next to Namur, both looking over at the crowd of marines with hate.

“Who did it?” They both asked, eyes shifting through the crowd to look for anyone who was behaving oddly. Their eyes both met in the middle and settled on a dark haired, dark skinned, big man. He was taller than all of the other marines, muscles bursting from the seams of his uniform. It wasn’t enough to assume that he was the guy who broke Ace’s ankles, but the sledge hammer lying at his feet sure was.

“You did?”

It wasn’t a question as much as it was a statement, and either way if the man answered he would be killed, if he didn’t, he’d still be killed. Namur and Kingdew were certain it was him, so they were going to punish the man how they saw fit.

It seemed that with Izou’s calming words and Marco’s transformation the crew adopted to their punishment ritual. Each member of the commanders claiming a specific part of the revenge, normally a body part, but it seems that different marines did different tortures to Ace. So the commanders were going to claim a certain marine.

The family knew this intuitively, so it wasn’t much of a shock for the rest of them to settle themselves down. Choosing to take part in the revenge as spectators, embarrassing the marines for being so hilariously weak, especially when they are supposed to fight against pirates like pops.

Kingdew and Namur started moving toward the sledge hammer guy at the same time, obviously terrifying the marines if their startled jumps back were any indication. The two got along wonderfully, preferring each other’s company when going in town, or when fighting. It wasn’t a surprise that they claimed this guy together. Also because they were both really active, and to them being unable to move was the worst possible punishment they could think of. Probably also the reason why Namur brought up Ace’s inability to walk in the first place. 

“Nonono. You have the wrong guy. It wasn’t me!!” the man’s voice was very high pitched and didn’t match his body at all. Taking in the fierce waving of his hands it was easy for Marco to brush this guy off as a peon. He wasn’t anyone important, he couldn’t be. Not with that coward attitude.

“Yes it was, Warrant Officer!!” three other voices yelled out, all from different parts of the crowd and Marco had to work to keep the surprise off his face. It didn’t stop his feathers from flaring, nor did it stop Namur and Kingdew from stalking toward the _Warrant Officer._

How someone so pathetic could make it as high as a warrant officer was a shock to the phoenix. He knew some pretty strong marines, both in mind and body. The fact that there were still more scum like this guy around sort of ticked him off. What happened to the old days when the marines were actually proud and noble?

Marco wasn’t a fan of marines, but at least the older generation of them wouldn’t do something so vile as to attack and abuse a captured and detained pirate; at least not until they were at Impel Down, but the keepers weren’t really marines so they didn’t really count.

The phoenix cooed suddenly and Marco refocused on his nakama and was pleasantly surprised at the scene.

Kingdew was holding the large marine up by his wrists, his hands wrapped incredibly tight if the reddening of them was any indication. And Namur was holding the sledge hammer like it was made of feathers, preparing to swing it at the marine being held captive. Not so surprising was when Kingdew started to speak.

“Now you will know how it feels to be completely incapable of saving yourself while someone else attacks you.” Another known fact about Kingdew was that he was incredibly well spoken for being a pirate, only using contractions when he was speaking in a hurry. It was surprising to most that such a gruff looking pirate could speak so eloquently.

But that was only in the back of Marco’s mind, the real thing taking over him was the amount of blood thirst he felt. His phoenix was cooing so loudly that he wanted to give in and release the sound in his own voice. People were wrong when they thought that the phoenix was a creature of light or good. The one in his mind and body was a bloodthirsty, revenge-inciting, and pain-inducing creature of fire.

His eyes turned slightly maniacal as he watched his fishman brother swing the hammer. It connected to the marines’ hip with a sickening crunch, no doubt shattering with the force of the hammer backed by the inhuman strength of a fishman.

The phoenix gave in and let out a crow of triumph, the screams from the hanging marine being easily overshadowed by the lovely voice of the phoenix. And to make him even happier was that Namur didn’t even pause what he was doing, even though Marco rarely let go to let the phoenix sing.

Another swing and Namur had shattered a shoulder.

Warrant Officer Coward was now sobbing in pain, his sharp cries irritating the phoenix enough that he was tempted to walk over and end the man’s pitiful existence himself. He was only stopped from doing so by Thatch’s warm hand wrapping around his wrist and pulling.

Marco had to actually stop himself from squawking at the chef in annoyance. The other, despite knowing how angry the phoenix was, just wrapped him up in thick arms and pulled him into a half embrace. Thatch knew how volatile an angry Marco was, and he was trying to do whatever it took to keep him calm so that the other members could get their revenge.

He didn’t like it, hell, he was tempted to bite the man and slaughter every marine present. But that wouldn’t be fair to the family. Ace was their brother too. They deserved to be able to claim revenge, just as Marco did. So he huffed and settled himself in Thatch’s arms, not surprised at all when Izou joined the hug thing.

None of that stopped the vindictive smile from spreading across the blonde’s face at the sound of another bone being broken. Looked like it was the Warrant Officer’s foot this time. Good. He should know the pain Ace had to go through before he was put out of his misery.

After Namur broke the other foot, Kingdew dropped his hostage, taking the sledge hammer from the fishman as he did so. It seemed that they agreed to Namur dishing out the punishment and Kingdew got the pleasure of killing him.

“I’d like to let you stay here. Lying in your own vomit. Slowly dying from shattered bones. But my brother wants to kill you. And I’m not going to stop him.” It was a surprise to hear Namur gloat, but just remembering the state Ace was in when they found him…well, the fishman’s change in attitude wasn’t uncalled for.

The phoenix was starting to rile. It wanted to be out fully. He wanted to change. Wanted to take on the full form of the majestic mythical bird. It was hard to keep it back, to keep himself from ripping apart every single marine on the vessel. Even watching his brother’s get their revenge didn’t satisfy the raging hate that was spiraling and expanding inside of him.

Flashes of Ace sped through his mind. Broken ankles, shredded back, cigarette burns, bruises, those pained cries. Everything made him want to burn those responsible to ash. Something he couldn’t do with his phoenix but wished to all deities that he could.

These monsters deserved it. Deserved to go through endless pain, the same pain they inflicted on the beautiful teen. His phoenix demanded retribution, and for the first time it worried him. His phoenix was never this adamant about revenge for another family member. Was it his newfound feelings for the teen that was driving the bird? It had to be. There was no other explanation for this deep seething anger he had.

Breaths. Deep breaths. He needed to calm down. He needed to slow down, to think, to keep himself level. If the phoenix took over, then the family wouldn’t get their closure. There would be a relentless slaughter. He couldn’t do that, not after his part in their desire for vengeance.

He paced himself, matched his breathing to Thatch’s and Izou’s combined heart beats.

Beat. Beat. Beat. Breathe in. Beat. Beat. Beat. Breathe out.

Slowly Marco was able to calm himself down, to relax the phoenix from fully forming and killing every single marine. A light coo was released from deep inside and the response from his family was exactly as he thought it would be.

Several members lifted their weapons and cheered along with his cry. Kingdew and Namur smiled viciously as Kingdew took a final swing to the sternum of the barely conscious marine.

The cry that followed was one of victory as the family cheered at the death of another stupid marine. To Marco’s complete surprise however, was the response of the marines left still living on the deck of the massive ship.

Two very similar men separated themselves from the pack, walking towards Kingdew and Namur with a sort of single minded focus. They looked a lot alike. Meaning they were either siblings, maybe twins, cause neither of them were old enough to be the other’s father.

Kingdew and Namur just watched as they two marines approached them. No one really expected the two navy siblings to do anything aggressive. The marine crew was completely overtaken by the family, so there shouldn’t be anyone stupid enough to try and attack one of the pirates.

So Marco was incensed when the two swung their giant fists at the two Whitebeard members standing over the broken marine. But the phoenix had no chance to take retaliated actions because in seconds Thatch was blocking the fists and flipping the two stupid marines over themselves.

The large cracks they made in the deck, accompanied by the loud thunk gave quite the insight to how hard Thatch flipped them. The chef was angry. And Marco’s phoenix wanted to preen in the anger floating around as if it was tangible.

Never had Marco ever seen the jovial man get angry so fast. And certainly not in the middle of family vengeance. The phoenix squirmed in Izou’s hug, trying to get loose to go and hug his brother, to feel the anger rippling beneath the other’s skin. The beast was trying so hard, it wanted to be free, it wanted it’s blood bath. It wanted a fight.

It wasn’t disappointed.

Thatch focused on the brother on the left and started wailing. His fists curled tight, pounding the man with a mixture of fury and hate. An uncommon thing people didn’t know about Thatch, he preferred hand-to-hand fighting as opposed to fighting with a weapon. He was good with swords, but his hands were his chosen method.

“Horis!” The other brother, the one on the right, sprang up as he heard the cries from his brother, who was apparently named Horis. Odd name.

Thatch responded to the threat immediately, kicking Horis away from him and turning into a roundhouse kick to the still unnamed brother’s side.

A grunt burst forth from the guy’s mouth, his hands clutching at Thatch’s foot that was still connected to the other man.

“Boris! Don’t!”

Oh my gods. Horis and Boris. That was, oh gods, that was hilarious. Can’t believe it. Horis and Boris. Hah.

Marco couldn’t keep the laughs down and they left his mouth sounding like a mix between human and avian. To his pleasant surprise Izou’s own melodious laughter joined in with his own and he couldn’t help but melt into the sound. The okama’s laugh was soothing, almost as calming as Thatch’s voice was.

Speaking of the chef, he easily used **Boris** holding himas a stability point to swing up his other foot and nail the marine right in the temple; causing the taller and broader man to crumple like a rag doll. Izou’s reaction to that made Marco remember why the okama was a commander.

“You go, babe! Make them feel all of the pain! Make them suffer!” he was yelling and his voice was happy, he was practically exuberant as he yelled toward Thatch.

Thatch’s responding laugh got the rest of the crew to cheer once more, louder so when Thatch was able to stop **Horis** charging at him with a fist to the solar plexus. The chef trained with Namur all the time, or at least whenever he wasn’t holed up in the kitchen, but it was enough that he was stronger than most other humans.

The two marines were both sprawled on the ground, still and looking like they wouldn’t be moving for a long time. Marco was content with that. At least he was until Boris grabbed Thatch by the ankle and pulled him down.

Luckily the chef was quick enough to push his hands out to the front of his body to stop his fall, unluckily for Boris, Thatch had a really strong lower body. The red-head was easily able to swing his leg around, dislodging the marine, and spin on his back before slamming his right foot down on Boris’ head.

The phoenix was desperate to sing at this point, the blood coating the military deck called to it like flames often did. The man was dead. He couldn’t have survived that much pressure on his head, especially not from someone as powerful as Thatch was. And it seemed almost instinctive to feel the flight of life from a body for him.

“NO!” Horis screamed in pain. Absolute agony emanated from his person as he lifted his head from the ground to look at his now dead brother. Marco tried to feel bad about it, but he couldn’t. Not when he saw the result of their abuse to Ace.

But the still living brother was angry, and he stood and started charging for Thatch, his broad shoulders down, running like his life depended on it. But the chef was standing tall; not even flinching as the huge mass came barreling toward him.

With a grace that seemed more fitting on Izou than someone as bulky as Thatch, the chef easily jumped over the man, pressing down on the shoulders to force him onto the deck bodily. The marine went down with an ugly cry and for once Marco thought that Thatch was going to take his time and torture the man.

So it was a slight surprise when instead of hurting the man, Thatch just wrapped his hands around the other’s neck and twisted. The bald head of the man slammed onto the deck, his head turned to the side and eyes gazing blankly in death. Snapped neck, Thatch’s preference in hand-to-hand fights, not completely unlike him.

He stood up almost slowly, moving his shoulders and back in such a way that caused his many muscles to ripple underneath his now messy white chef jacket. He curled his fists, cracking them as he did so, and Marco’s gaze went right to looking at the now blood coated hands. Damn. Did not think he did enough damage to make the guys bleed.

“Oh my gods, Thatch!” Izou yelled and let go of Marco in a flash to run over to the redhead and give him a big kiss on the cheek.

Marco would have smiled but he was a bit busy trying to keep his phoenix at bay now that he had nothing to distract himself with. It wasn’t that hard, he just glanced his way over the remaining marines and their fear made him want to preen.

“BLOODY PIRATES! HOW DARE YOU?!!” A man yelled so loudly that Marco almost broke his own neck snapping it over to look at the man who shouted.

He was relatively short, a little flabby, and his should-be pristine white marine uniform was tainted with blood all around his collar and shoulder area. No doubt it was his own blood as his bent nose and darkly bruised eye area were telltale signs of a broken nose and a collapsed eye socket.

Damn. Ace must have given them quite the hard time. Fucking good job.

Marco cracked his neck, ready to get his shot at the marines, but he was stopped, again, but this time by Haruta. The phoenix wanted to attack her, make her back off cause they were his prey, but the mischievous maniacal glint she had in her eye made him excited for what she was going to do.

Hell, Marco didn’t even remember her getting on the marine’s vessel. Was he that out of it due to the violence? Hmm. Might be something to look into, but first things first.

“When did you get over here, yoi?” his voice was slightly musical as the phoenix was still brushing at the surface, and in fact caused his arms to flare a bit with fire.

“Right after Thatch killed the first one.” Haruta’s voice in turn was soft. She was in her zone now. That meant one of two things; someone was getting tortured, or someone as getting stealth killed. Either way Marco would be pleased, Haruta was more into interrogation than Thatch was, so this would be more of a show.

“Ah.”

Marco turned away from her slightly, completely ignoring the man with the broken face, and just stared at Thatch and Izou as they embraced. Lucky bastards.

The phoenix almost wanted to growl, because dammit, he wished he could be hugging Ace right now. Not fair that his brothers get to further their relationship and he doesn’t. Even though theirs has been expected for such a long time, and his and Ace’s is practically non-romantic at this point.

He zoned out slightly, thinking about how the teen he was falling for was doing in the infirmary. Vista would take care of him, that’s for sure, but Marco wished he could be there with him instead. But someone had to get revenge, and incite the family to get revenge. Just lots of overall vengeance really.

Again he was shaken out of his thoughts by Izou and Thatch moving to stand on either side of him. Even though their relationship is getting deeper it seems that they still want to make sure the phoenix didn’t do anything stupid. But it was a good thing anyway, he was so out of focus that he missed Jiru coming over as well and standing next to Haruta.

“ARE YOU IGNORING ME?!!” the broken face guy yelled again, and this time he was properly acknowledged by Haruta and Jiru. Well. Looks like he’s the guy getting interrogated. Jiru was more often than not the retriever for Haruta, she would pick out someone who probably knew a lot and Jiru would live up to his name and have the person in captivity before she could even voice who she wanted.

Well this would be fun.

Marco tried hard not to blink, Jiru was entirely too fast and he didn’t want to miss any part of what was coming. It was most likely going to be the most entertaining thing until he actually gets his own vengeance.

In seconds Jiru had the man with the broken face bound and tied to the mast of the marine vessel; no doubt he wanted the family to have a nice view while the marines could still see as well. Haruta just smirked evilly, bringing out one of her only daggers and twirling it dangerously.

The thirteenth commander was a force to be reckoned with when wielding her sword, but her dagger, that was her preferred choice when it came to her interrogations. Smaller, closer to her body, more personal she calls it.

Marco rather likes calling it an intimidation factor. Nothing quite like seeing a small woman with a small blade smile like a psycho and happily dig said small blade into your spleen. At least it was entertaining for the crew. Not so much the one being interrogated.

“Alright, mouthy, let’s hear you scream.”

Haruta wasted no time and plunged her dagger right into the man’s left shoulder, straight up from the armpit. The man screamed and tried to move his other arm to hold his obviously now dislocated shoulder.

“Bitch!” he struggled against his restraints and Haruta stepped back calmly.

Jiru responded as soon as she was out of the way, his lance appearing seemingly out of nowhere. He lined up with his target in a second, smirking dangerously before he pushed forward three steps, spearing right into the meat below Haruta’s wound. It was at the top of the pectoral, rather close to the armpit.

Haruta and Jiru were a great combination for a reason. Haruta always knew where to hit to make it hurt the most, and Jiru always knew where to hit that hurt but was fleeting enough that it wouldn’t kill them. Great tag team.

“Call her that again and you’ll find yourself bleeding in more places than you can count.”

The man only nodded in response, tears coming to his eyes as he bled from the wound quite heavily. Lucky for him Jiru had a few towels for such wounds and shoved it into the hole roughly. They probably wanted him to be alive for a while after all; Haruta’s sessions were either really short or surprisingly long.

Marco stepped forward slightly, intent on doing something to help the process along, but an arm from Thatch and Izou both stopped him. Damn them for getting in his way again!

He growled low in his human voice, the area around his eyes flashing into the phoenix’s mask in a moment. Marco glared at the chef with as much anger as he could muster, but something about the man’s jovial grin calmed him down a little.

“Don’t play too much, Haruta!” Izou shouted out, his smaller arms wrapping around the phoenix’s waist, obviously trying to help ground him. “Marco isn’t too keen on waiting for his own revenge!”

A surprisingly loud cheer sounded from the Moby and the first mate simply couldn’t keep the evil smirk off his face. His brothers and sisters were ready for it to be his turn as well; might have something to do with his fondness of ripping bodies to shreds with his talons.

There was also that one time he grabbed an asshole, who was belittling Haruta’s choice of clothes, by the shoulders and soared into the air. He went so high into the air that when he let go of the man he hit the sea so hard his neck snapped on contact. Good times.

“No worries, first mate! This shouldn’t take me too long at all~” Haruta sing-songed as she turned back to her captured prey, her dagger twirling in her hand lightly.

“You can’t make me say anything, you filthy pirate!” The broken face man yelled again, and quite a few members of the family laughed, even pops chuckled a little.

“Haha, you obviously haven’t heard of what the thirteenth division is in charge of.” Jiru spoke softly, his lance at his side pointed up. “Their interrogations are just about legendary now.”

Haruta laughed in response to Jiru’s light praise, and gave him a flash of a smile before focusing once more on the places that cause pain.

She took the man’s left hand out of its restraint and carefully held it so that he couldn’t escape. Not that he could do much with that hand due to the dislocated shoulder and all, but it would be entertaining to see him try.

Ever so cautiously, Haruta raised her dagger and placed it at the junction of the man’s thumb and forefinger. She glanced up at his face to savor the fear before she sliced through the skin and muscle until she hit bone before stopping.

The marine’s screams were loud and grating, and he was lucky Izou and Thatch were keeping him grounded right now or Marco would’ve put him out of his misery.

Jiru silenced him well enough though with a lance to the face. He had good control of that thing, barely even caused Haruta’s hair to flutter.

“Which one slashed Ace’s back?” she asked quietly, the family hearing it only due to the silence of the surroundings.

The man whimpered but kept his mouth tightly shut. Haruta merely shrugged before moving her bloody dagger to the juncture between the pointer and middle finger. She placed it on the skin lightly and looked back at the man’s face.

“Once more, which one slashed Ace’s back?”

He shook his head violently and Haruta responded by slashing her way down again, slower this time. A whole minute had passed before she hit the bone. The man obviously wanted to scream, but Jiru made an intimidating figure behind Haruta, so he bit his lip and kept his screams sealed tightly.

Good. His voice hurt.

“I’ll stop once you tell me.” Haruta mentioned nonchalantly, moving her dagger to the next juncture, between the middle and ring finger.

“Yo-you will?” the man stuttered out. Marco smirked, an action he was sure was mirrored on every other Whitebeard pirate.

“Of course I will.” She smiled and spoke sweetly, the man looking at her like she was salvation.

“It-it was the twins! Horis and Boris!” he yelled, panicking no doubt when Haruta made to move her blade down again.

“Pity, they are already dead.” She started slicing again through the man’s flesh.

“Wait! WAIT! HIS ARMS!” the marine screamed, his voice reaching incredible heights, and Haruta stopped. She wanted to know what the man thought could save him.

“What about Ace’s arms?” her voice was still sweet, one of her greatest weapons really.

“They-they were broken! It was him! Johney! The big one with short dark purple hair!”

Marco growled. He knew Ace’s arms had to have been broken, but to hear the man who did its name? Unacceptable. The man was going to die, painfully, and slowly.

He made to walk towards the marine, the one who was now backing away, glaring at his bound crewmate with betrayal, when he was stopped, again, by Thatch and Izou. He whipped his head around and was ready to claw his way out of their grasp when he saw why he was stopped.

Fossa and Blenheim were on the marine vessel now, making their way towards the purple haired marine menacingly. Fine. He could wait. Fossa and Blenheim deserved this one anyway, seeing as they liked to break their opponent’s arms as well. It was almost like knowing their brother suffered from what they preferred to inflict. Not a good feeling.

“Nonono! You can’t blame me for what I did!” The purple marine’s voice was surprisingly high for his size, but the family was more or less paying closer attention to the words he spoke. They most certainly could blame him for the wounds.

“We can’t?” Fossa questioned sarcastically, turning to look at Blenheim as he did. The elder smiled back before turning his own attention to the retreating marine.

“I think we can, sonny. See, it was our lil’ brother ya hurt. Tha’ means we getta have some retribution, aye?” Blenheim spoke slowly, obviously trying to make sure the sort of young marine got the picture.

“I was just following orders! You can’t possibly blame me for what I was ordered to do!” he was hysterical now, already backed into the railing, nowhere left to run anymore.

Something in Fossa hardened, and the family knew this kid was dead. If there was one thing the fifteenth commander hated, it was someone hiding behind the guise of orders. Too many marines thought it was ok to do whatever they wanted because they “were just following orders”.

“My wife, my lovely wife, was a good woman. She was strong, tough, caring, and loving. She never did anything wrong. Listened to the marines, followed the law.” It was a story the family heard many times, one that never failed to make them wish they could help with Fossa’s anger.

“She was pregnant with our first child when she was killed by a man **just following orders**! SHE NEVER DID ANYTHING WRONG!! AND SHE WAS SLAUGHTERED!”

Blenheim had to physically hold the man back from launching himself at the now scared to death marine. A puddle formed under him, and it was obvious to the phoenix that the ass had wet himself. Serves him right, humiliation and death, perfect combination for the piece of trash.

“Sh-she married a pirate! That’s enough of a death sentence!”

No one could say for sure what happened after that. All of a sudden the marine was on the ground, screaming his head off, and his left leg was laying a few feet away from him. Fossa’s flaming sword was enough of a giveaway as to who did it at least.

Blenheim had let go of him at some point, his own sword drawn as well, and Marco couldn’t blame him, hell no Whitebeard pirate would blame him. Fossa’s wife was Blenheim’s sister after all.

“She did nothin’ wrong. She mahrried a man she loved, and she was killed for tha’.” The ninth commander spat out. His hate was almost tangible in the air, meshing and melding with Fossa’s. They both lost a loved one that horrid day, and grew closer because of it.

Both had sworn off relationships of any kind besides the Whitebeard crew, they never wanted to experience that kind of loss again. Even talking about it brought memories back to them, and it just became one of those things everyone knew but no one talked about.

Marco calmed himself down with his own thoughts. This couldn’t have been easy on the two, having their new younger brother be at the mercy of men following orders, like Sophia and her unborn child were. He wasn’t the only one who wanted retribution. Hell he was the one who incited his family to get angrier. Marco could at least give them their chance before he destroyed it all.

He settled himself into Izou’s and Thatch’s hug, letting their physical closeness calm the raging phoenix below. He would get his turn, but his brothers and sisters deserved theirs as well.

“My sista was the swe’test person you’dever meet, and she deserved to die ‘cause she was mahrried to a pirate?!!” Blenheim seemed to have worked himself into a rage while Marco was calming himself down. And that was fine; things went faster when emotions were involved.

As if to confirm Marco’s thoughts, Blenheim took out his own large sword and sliced off the marine’s other leg, picking it up and throwing it off the ship.

Said marine was screaming again, and Marco heard a few retches from where the other marines were crowding. Looks like they were able to stomach a pirate being tortured but not their own crewmate, serves them right then.

“She was married to a pirate, was the sister of a pirate, and was probably going to give birth to a pirate! She begged for her fate!” The man yelled again, and the phoenix could hear the rest of his family getting irate. The marine just did not know when to shut up.

Luckily Fossa and Blenheim seemed to have had enough of the asshole and swiftly cut off an arm each; unfortunately with his flaming sword Fossa cauterized the wound as well.  Didn’t matter too much though, in seconds Blenheim lopped off the purple-haired head.

Fossa kicked the man’s parts into the sea before he turned around, throwing an arm around Blenheim’s shoulders and walking them back to the Moby.

Good for them. They got their revenge for Ace, and Sophia.

As they passed the group hug they stuck out their hands and got high fives from them all. Marco was happy for them, he really was, just not happy enough to forget his hate and try and talk to them. He’d do that later.

Turning back around, from watching the two hop back onto the Moby, Marco was greeted to the sight of Haruta and Jiru already back to interrogating their captive.

“I told you what you wanted!!” the imprisoned marine yelled, panicking as Haruta placed her blade right back on the juncture between the man’s left middle and ring finger.

“Ah, but that’s not all is there?” She smiled sweetly as she started moving the blade down to the bone in the wrist once more. The man was screaming again, and Jiru repositioned his spear back where it was underneath the man’s chin.

“What are you trying to keep from us?” Jiru asked with his voice down an octave from normal. He wanted to finish this as well. Once this was done we could all wait around by the infirmary for whenever Ace would wake up.

Haruta had already reached the bone before the man yelled out that he’d speak. Even so she still placed the dagger on the last juncture between the ring finger and the pinky. She wasn’t going to let him off, if he said something unsatisfying then Haruta would slice down with little hesitation.

“Bullet wounds! His bullet wounds!!” the marine was screaming hysterically. Haruta looked confused for a moment before she obviously remembered Marco’s angry rant at the captain not too long ago. The man used seastone bullets after all.

“What about them?” She asked lightly, delicately slicing into the man’s skin, layer by layer.

“Bobby!! Bobby reopened them!! Yelled at him!! Degraded him!!”

“Ya fa’kin ‘oud mou’!!” **(You fucking loud mouth)**

Never before had Marco ever heard someone with such a heavy speaking problem that he couldn’t understand what they were saying. This man was definitely not educated in the least. Was the navy this desperate? To take men not even capable of speaking properly?

Vaguely Marco wondered which of his brothers would be taking care of this guy. It seemed to be a consensus that the phoenix would get the captain, and pops the ship as per usual, but everyone else was free game.

His inner question was answered not a second later when Curiel and Rakuyo joined them on the enemy’s ship. Not surprising. They were both honorable fighters, taking advantage of a wound was the worst sort of taboo for them.

Not to mention they were both projectile fighters as well, this was their area of expertise.

“Br’ng i’ on ya fa’kin pirat’s!” **(Bring it on you fucking pirates)** Oh gods Marco’s ears were going to hurt even worse if he was forced to listen to this man speak anymore.

An unfortunate thing was that this marine was as much a coward as he was vocal, choosing to hide amongst the other marines and not come out and face the two commanders. Marco hated his kind, big talkers with no power to back it up.

Luckily Curiel had his precious bazooka with him as well as his smaller rapid fire pistols. The crowd was going to clear fast once he loaded it up, and he was doing just that when Marco glanced back at them. Rakuyo was going to play distraction it seems.

The dreaded man was already in a battle stance, his spiked flail dancing behind his head like an over protective mama snake. Rakuyo would be able to scare the man quite a bit before Curiel got a chance to threaten the other marines out of the way.

“Come on out ya pansy!” as always the seventh division commander was loud and brash. Oh well, it’s fine in a situation like this anyway.

“Fa’k ‘ff Pirat’!!” **(Fuck off Pirate)**

This was going to turn into a yelling war. Marco knew it and he rubbed his temples in response. A hothead after a stupid hothead; this was either going to be completely entertaining, or entirely too annoying.

“Come on now! I won’t hurt ya too bad!” Rakuyo yelled again, his flail pushing forward to crash into the middle of the crowd of marines. Left quite the dent in the floor too.

The displaced marines were about to run off like headless chickens but they stopped dead when Curiel stood back up with Big Boom, his favorite bazooka, grasped firmly in his hands. Well that was faster than expected.

“How about y’all move to the side and reveal this Bobby, aye? Then I won’t set Big Boom on ya.” He spoke rather loudly and the response from the marines was for them all to move to the cabin wall, leaving a man with disgusting brown hair standing right where the middle of where the crowd once was.

“Well hello, Bobby.” Curiel almost purred, aiming his baby at the dirty marine with no hesitation.

“Ga fa’k yer h’ore!” **(Go fuck your whore)** the man yelled, standing tall and almost proudly. But Marco was hardly paying attention to the puffed up marine. That word just bounced around in his head, his mind trying to wrap itself around the reasoning behind its usage.

At least it sounded like whore. Couldn’t be anything else really. Hore and whore were the only possible words and hore wasn’t actually a word last he checked. So that brought up the question.

Why would he say whore? More specifically, who was he calling a whore? Rakuyo and Curiel were close due to their shared love of ranged weapons and they often conspired with Izou about improving accuracy, but it wasn’t like they were overly affectionate. At least not in the presence of these marines, they weren’t.

Was that it?

Were they calling Izou a whore cause of his kimono and make-up?

“Now who’d ya be callin’ a whore, exactly?” Rakuyo questioned, snapping Marco out of his thoughts and contemplations.

He looked up curiously, watching the gross marine as he looked around widely, even Thatch and Izou were perked up as well; though the chef was tensing something fierce, obviously reaching the same thought process as the phoenix did.

The man’s laughter shocked everyone.

Bobby the marine was laughing so hard he was doubled over. And Rakuyo and Curiel did not like that, their eyes narrowing and the floating flail flew through the air without a single sign that it was going to.

A spike dug into the hunched over marine and the man was screaming instead of laughing, the force laying him flat out on his back, blood seeping from his now damaged shoulder.

“Wanna share what’s so funny?” Curiel asked calmly, Big Boom now pointed at the marine’s torso region.

“Hehehe. ‘ts ob’ios! S’upid pirat’s! Hehehe!” **(It’s obvious! Stupid pirates!)** he continued to laugh and by the hardening of Curiel’s face, it was obvious the big man did not appreciate the disgusting marine’s jovial mood.

With the only warning being the tightening of his finger, Curiel shot Big Boom to the right of Bobby’s head, missing it by less than an inch. He stopped laughing then, eyes wide, body as rigid as a board, barely even breathing it seemed. Well that worked.

“Better share what ya find so damn funny, what’s so obvious, if ya know what’s good fer ya.” Rakuyo hissed, his own weapon whipping around like an angry cat.

“Ain’t no o’e e’se i’ cou’d bi. Ya jus’ gotta ‘ink bou’ i’.” **(Ain’t no one else it could be. You just got to think about it)** he murmured, glancing at the new hole in the deck rather fearfully. As he should, Curiel was trigger happy, and he wanted everyone to know it too.

Both Rakuyo’s and Curiel’s eyebrows furrowed and their anger showed openly on their faces. They were tired of the illiterate annoying asshole’s run around just as Marco was. They were going to get some answers now, and no one would stop them.

Curiel placed Big Boom gently onto the deck, pulling out Little Shit, his smaller pistol, as he started heading for the marine still sprawled out on the deck. He cocked it discretely and placed it on the man’s forehead, between each of his eyes, as he arrived to his splayed form.

“Stop tryin’ to stall. Who the hell did ya call a whore?” He hissed menacingly and Marco smirked as he saw the coward take in a gulp of air.

“’e fa’kin b’ch fro’ b’for.” **(The fucking bitch from before)** He spoke quietly and Marco was barely able to catch what he was saying, but he did hear a few parts.

“There ain’t no bitches on our crew, try again.” Rakuyo snapped out, his flail dancing behind Curiel’s head as he made his way closer to his brother.

“’e o’e ‘o di’n’t do’ge!” **(The one who didn’t dodge!)** suddenly everything froze. Not a single person of the family was injured in rescuing Ace, so the only person this illiterate man could be talking about was said pirate.

Just as quickly as everything stopped did everything restart, only it wasn’t of their own volition.

Pops stood so fast that a few nurses wanted to berate him, but the amount of pure anger on his face stopped them. His head was slightly tilted down, his eyes covered by the shadow of his forehead, his spear clasped tightly in his left hand, and his right raised in a signature movement.

With barely a second to brace himself, Marco watched with a sort of vindictive glee as pops slammed his right hand into the air causing cracks in the air. The sea started to shift, slamming into both ships and causing several of the marines to lose their balance. A few actually lost grasp of the boards on the deck and started to slide as the ship pitched to one side.

Marco smiled with the first terrified scream of someone falling into the ocean, said smiling widening when the screams were cut off by the vicious waves of the unrelenting sea.

“Do not call my son a whore.”

His old voice sounded the youngest it had in the long time, his eyes reflecting the severe amount of anger and hate he was feeling. And he did not look finished.

With a movement not caught by his brothers, Marco watched as pops wrapped his right hand around his spear and stabbed the air, aiming for the marine vessel.

The most precision was used and the tremors reached the wood and started to rattle the material. They shook hard and rapidly in such a short amount of time that the hull of the ship splintered and a hole formed where the old man aimed.

Water started to flow in the boat and Marco faced those of his siblings who had yet to claim their vengeance.

“As much as y’all want to drag out your retribution, pops’ is more pressing. Act swiftly and mercilessly.” He spoke calmly, keeping his head despite how badly his phoenix was fighting to rip out and destroy every single person on the enemy boat.

His statement was followed shortly after by a loud sort of muffled thump, a sure sign that Curiel had lost his desire to keep the illiterate man alive. A quick look back and his thoughts were confirmed by the sight of a large hole in the deck and only the legs of the sailor left; the torso being ripped from them and forced into the hole that now graced the naval vessel.

Haruta played off the killing easily by bringing her dagger around to the captured marine’s neck who seemed content to save himself by giving up his crewmates.

“Nonononono I told you what you wanted!!” The man cried out, tears rolling their way out of his eyes, leaving tracks on his cheeks before dropping onto the floor. Jiru merely smirked at the crying man and positioned the tip of his lance to where it was lightly resting on the marine’s lower abdominals.

“Well there are still three more of my brothers waiting for their revenge so I would get talking if I were you.” Haruta hissed out, moving her dagger back to the bastard’s junction between his ring and pinky finger.

Before he could yell out or stop her, the thirteenth division commander sliced right through to the bone, much like she had with the other junctures. Not only that but she also ripped out the towels keeping the two holes in his shoulder from bleeding out, almost smiling like a lunatic as rivers started to pour down his arm.

“No! PLEASE!!”

Jiru answered the man’s cry by plunging his spear into his lower right thigh, missing the bone there by mere millimeters. He twisted it twice before he pulled out, and more blood started flowing, and soon each side of him was more or less soaked.

The man was babbling now, crying about unfairness and other such hypocritical things. Marco was just about done with all this prolonging. Jozu, Blamenco, and Atmos may not have gotten their turn yet but he wanted to rip the captain apart already.

Thatch and Izou were able to hold him back barely, but he was starting to shift random parts of his body. His feet were talons, blue fire feathers were fluttering on and off on his arms, his beak was currently showing, and his tail was wrapping around his two brother’s feet. All in all, he wanted to kill someone, and his phoenix was in complete agreement.

A shriek escaped Marco’s throat and Haruta jerked at the sound, her dagger slicing slightly at the wrist of the tied marine’s right hand, the left being abandoned due to the now swinging longer digits. The phoenix didn’t care much; he wanted the captain dead and he wanted him dead now.

Haruta flipped back around and slammed her captive’s head into the mast, shaking him slightly with the point of her weapon settled under his chin. Jiru backed her up by placing his lance on the left thigh, most likely aiming for an identical wound to the other he made.

“Tell me offenders!!” She yelled loudly, for once hurrying her process along.

Marco wanted to feel bad about messing with his sister’s ideal torturing technique but he was done waiting. He got a taste of vengeance before he revealed Ace’s secret but it wasn’t enough, he needed to see the life drain from the man’s eyes, needed to see him dead before he could possible relax enough to do anything else.

“PETER, MALIK, AND ANDRES!!!” the man babbled out, his head shaking back and forth as more blood freely trailed down his body.

Haruta and Jiru gave each other a look, most likely sharing the fact they doubted the man would live too much longer with that extensive blood flow.

In a swift simultaneous move that may have been planned, Haruta sliced her dagger through her captive’s throat as Jiru stabbed him right in the stomach. Marco’s brother went deep enough that when he pulled his lance out there was a sizable hole in the abdomen.

The man died in seconds.

Looking at the now lifeless body of the marine as Jiru gave Haruta a light peck on the cheek in victory had Marco and his phoenix aflame. He couldn’t stand still any longer; he couldn’t not do something to get his own proper revenge.

With a deep breath and the closing of his eyes, Marco gave in to a bit of his phoenix, allowing himself to change his arms fully into wings, and his mask appeared on his eyes. Keeping his human torso and legs, Marco wrapped his wings around his body and spun, aiming to be released from his brother’s arms.

He succeeded rather gracefully and while spinning he jumped into the air, his talons flexing and compacting as close as he could to his own body. His glorious blue wings spread out in a second, catching his body in the air with a single down stroke.

He stayed there for a moment, hovering above his brothers’ heads by a foot or two, flapping his wings to keep himself aloft.

He would say he was an intimidating sight.

Fire blue wings flapped steadily, his golden tail floating around his talons and brushing lightly against the backs of Izou and Thatch; his dark blue mask contrasted with the bright blue flames that now flickered around his body. Feeling freedom he hadn’t allowed himself in a long while, Marco couldn’t keep the trill from escaping his fully formed beak.

It wasn’t a pretty sight, not really. A human body with parts of his phoenix, it was sort of scary how much control he had over his phoenix that he was able to change all parts of his body save his torso. But Marco wasn’t thinking of his prowess, or what he looked like.

No. His eyes were locked on the prone form of the captain he bloodied not too long ago. The marine’s nose was still crushed, a river of blood trailing down from said nose and coating his lips, chin, and neck. His eyes were fluttering in obvious unconsciousness, bruises forming along his cheek and jaw.

Overall he was a mess of black, blue, and blood. Even his once pristine brunet hair was mussed and tousled in an unflattering way.

None of that mattered to Marco.

He just wanted, no needed, to make the man feel more pain than Ace did, make him feel the terror and pain as the blind teen did. Nothing else would settle his gut; nothing else will placate the beast. And on a sinking ship, he certainly did not have enough time to carry out the ideas that had appeared in his head since his siblings started their revenge.

Marco started to flap faster, gaining some height, and building up power to swoop in on his prey. He watched his siblings as he moved up. Haruta and Jiru were walking over to the Moby hand in hand, Thatch and Izou were following slowly behind, glancing up at him every now and then in obvious worry. Pops was tapping on the air, aiming small tremors at the ship and different marines, to get the boat to sink faster and to give other marines at least a small amount of pain that they deserved.

After maybe a minute, Marco was sort of hovering up by Pops’ Jolly Roger and the phoenix almost fell back to the deck laughing at the sight on the marine deck.

Three very different marines were cowering together, separated from the rest of the crowd of sailors.

One was pale as all get out; looked like he barely ever stood out in the sun for longer than a moment, his hair a dirty kind of brown, much like many of the other sailors. Marco was too far to see the color of his eyes, but he doubted they were anything interesting.

Another was tanned a bit more than the first, a sort of scorched mustard color, arms wrapped around the neck of the pale fucker. His hair was a pitch black and if Marco didn’t hate him on principle he might have called it a beautiful color. But he was obviously a perpetrator as well so to him it was black like his heart. Unlike the other man though he was looking up at him specifically, and the phoenix could see well enough to notice that his eyes were the same shade of coal as his hair.

The last man had the most color. His skin was a dark burnt potato color, sicklier looking than Uchoraji’s, so nowhere near as beautiful as he was. His hair was also black like the second marine, but his was a sort of dull, almost grey, black; lighter than his skin color, but darker than the average grey-haired man. He was wrapped around the second man like he was a life line, head on the sailor’s back, eyes squeezed shut.

And the reason for their cowering was no doubt the hulking forms of Jozu, Blamenco, and Atmos stalking towards them like cattle.

Marco had to think for a moment if he wanted to let his brothers have their own revenge before he fetched his own prize. He didn’t want to wait, he wanted to torture and kill the captain now. But that wasn’t how family revenge worked. The first mate was last. Always, even if he started the revenge, he was not allowed to fully claim it until every single commander had had their own vengeance.

But Ace was his, maybe not right now, but the teen would be his. Marco wouldn’t allow anyone else to have the blind pirate’s love or affection. Ace may not feel as strongly as the blonde did right now, but in time they would love each other as fiercely as Sophia and Fossa once did, he could feel it in his gut.

So he should be able to claim his vengeance now, disregarding the family rules.

And with a mindset like that, Marco was about to dive down to capture his victim but he stopped at the sight of pops. They were his rules. Pops was the one who made the rules about family revenge, to ignore them was to ignore pops’ word, to go against the man he has called father for many more years than some pirates had been alive.

Marco flapped his wings harder to where he could land on the outer edge of the crow’s nest. And he rested there. His talons gripping the wood like it was the only thing holding him into the real world, puncturing holes he was sure Fossa would make him fix later. He settled his wings to his side and crouched slightly, so he’d be ready to launch off at any time he deemed fit.

It was amusing to watch his brothers actually, especially the three taking their turn now. They all rather liked to intimidate their opponents, much like a lion sauntering towards a gazelle.

Normally the gazelle didn’t attack back though. So the crispy mustard guy charging all of a sudden was a complete shock. Marco didn’t think any of these navy dogs had the courage to do such a thing. Not when their enemy wasn’t tied down or incapacitated.

Marco would give the man props for that, but his phoenix let out a coo of disapproval. Though he doubted his brothers could hear him, it still helped to voice his worry at a reckless marine. Nothing was more dangerous than a man who cared little about his life or his crewmates.

But the phoenix shouldn’t have worried at all. Not really. With just a glance from Jozu the marine lost all momentum, and apparently the drive to fight back, if him stopping suddenly, in the middle of the charge, said anything.

The crispy guy was pretty big so it was rather humorous for Marco to watch from a bird’s eye view as the man started to cower. Damn. He was hanging around Thatch too much…he just used a bird joke on himself.

Must be the phoenix messing with his head. He didn’t like being denied prey for as long as he had so far. It’s a wonder he hasn’t snapped and just torn the captain apart. Then again he was always rather stubborn, and he very rarely let his phoenix play as much as it desired to. Bad for his image really, if he went around slashing people up with his talons and giggling maniacally as he did so.

Bah. Getting distracted again, Marco really needed to take his revenge. Needed to savor it with his phoenix so he could go sit by Ace’s bed and worry. Not that it would do any good but it’d be better than sitting up in a crow’s nest watching as Jozu turned himself into diamond to properly beat up the man who attempted to fight back.

Now that he brought his attention back to his three brothers he noticed that Blamenco was pulling out his signature hammer from his pocket, and both of Atmos’ rather large swords were drawn. Looks like they weren’t going to try and draw their battle, if they could call it that, out any longer than they had to.

Something the three had in common was their preference for short fights. Not necessarily easy fights, but short ones.

“We didn’t do anything!!! It was just some burns!! An accident really!!” the sickly looking one screamed out, hiding his large body behind the burnt potato marine. Not that he hid the pale man very well. They were similar sizes, but one simply could not hide behind the other.

“Yeah! An accident!! No reason to kill us!! It wasn’t anything bad! Honest!!” the darkest one cried, literal tears falling from his eyes as he started to shake in his navy uniformed boots. What pathetic weaklings. The marines must be truly desperate if they were letting in scum like this.

“Honest?” Blamenco asked, his large head tilting to the side slightly as he started at the quivering man.

“Yeah!! Honest!!” the scorched mustard guy yelled from his new place behind the pale man. When did he get there? Marco stopped paying attention to him when Jozu made it clear he was the top dog between them.

“He wasn’t asking you a question.” Atmos’ deep voice resonated around the ship and Marco cooed in response to it. The man was normally laughing and cackling during a fight so it was nice to hear his normally deep voice in a threatening tone for once.

“Wha-what?” The darkest one whispered with fear. Marco was barely holding back his desire to cackle, these three were very blunt, they cared very little for fancy words or long drawn conversations. And they all really hated marines, didn’t think a single one was worth their word.

“Honesty is not something that I relate to marines. Lying pieces of garbage, the lot of you.” Blamenco spoke, raising his hammer to the side, obviously done with the conversation at hand. He was ready for this to be over as well.

Blamenco was probably the only one on the entire crew that anyone could call sweet. The man had a very sweet disposition and was kind to every single pirate to cross his path, however when it came to marines he seemed to become the exact opposite. He was ruthless with them, refusing to give them any kinds of reprieves from a battle. No breaks, no handy caps, no problems.

His ruthlessness showed perfectly when with one single swing of his hammer the dark marine in front was sent sailing. Over the railings, over their sinking ship, and far into the distance, no doubt unconscious and likely to drown, good.

Marco started to pick at the crow’s nest with his claws, taking chunks of the wood out as he did so. He was restless. His brother’s needed to hurry up. Needed to finish this petty show of strength. Needed them to clear the way so he could sink his talons in where he truly wished to, the captain’s flesh.

It felt like Jozu and Atmos actually read his mind in some way, because not seconds later Atmos had cut the sickly one across the chest. The gash shallow but bleeding quite well, extending from right shoulder to left hip. The man didn’t even wait for the cut to process before he brought his other sword up and sliced again, this time from the left shoulder to right hip. The cuts making a crude sort of X and bleeding enough to paint the crisp marine shirt in wonderful crimson.

With a swift round house kick to the head, Atmos had disposed of the sickly colored marine onto the sinking ship he arrived on. He may not die from blood loss but he would definitely drown in the ocean if he didn’t. Either way, much like the darker skinned one, he was going to die.

Jozu was much less kind with his victim. Not settling for a slash or even a launch from the ship, he also seemed to want to take a bit longer than the other two. Choosing to change his arms into diamond and punish the mustard guy that way.

It was a bit gruesome, but not a single Whitebeard pirate flinched or looked away, not even when the marine’s head sailed away from his body to land on the other ship. Or when the blood really started to flow and actually trailed far enough away from the body to hit a few other crew members. Much to Marco’s satisfaction they didn’t even flinch or looked disgusted, just had a malicious smirk plant on each of their faces.

It was a good scene to the phoenix. His crew, his family, his brothers and sisters all in agreement, all enjoying the suffering of those who harmed one of their own. It made him coo, quite proud of his family, as his trill echoed down the mast and wrapped his family in his figuratively protective embrace. A smile graced every single face and Jozu removed himself from the pile of flesh that was no longer recognizable.

Everyone gazed up at him, even pops, not a single one shocked at his mixed human and phoenix appearance. Smiles looked up at him and he trilled again, a soft melodic sound, and a few happy sighs were heard from his family.

Marco basked in their gazes. It made the phoenix want to puff up, to look as majestic as he was. But he held back. His family’s praise could wait. He wasn’t done yet. It wasn’t time for him to break. Just one more thing to do, one more thing and then he can safely go watch over his injured brother. More than brother, soon to be lover. Either way, just one last thing to achieve before he can sit by Ace with confidence that everyone who harmed him was taken care of, that he’d never have to worry about them again.

His trill changed, a loud caw echoed, and soon instead of a soothing familial song, a song of battle and destruction escaped from his throat. He set his sight on the gasping captain trying to crawl towards the railings of the sinking ship, trying to escape the wrath of the phoenix. Like hell.

With a single sharp trill Marco launched himself from the edge of the nest, beak opening for the trill to truly reach every person still alive. Meaning his family and the few marines too stubborn to die.

He twirled rather elegantly in the air before he tipped backward, diving for the disgusting man still on the marine vessel. Not for long.

Marco was a predator, a hunter, an assassin. The phoenix was on the captain almost as soon as he started to dive, despite his original height in the sky.

A scream escaped the marine’s mouth as Marco’s talons dug into the meaty flesh of the cowering man’s shoulders. He couldn’t stop his claws from digging in, nor could he stop the instinct movement of pecking at the man’s neck.

The few times he has hunted as a phoenix that was his preferred method of killing his prey. A swift peck to the throat and his family was eating well that night. But he didn’t want to kill the marine captain. Not yet, not when he didn’t know what exactly happened to his blind brother. Not when he still didn’t have an answer to what the white stuff was that was on his lovely brother’s bottom.

He had an inkling, a good idea as to what it was. In fact he was practically sure he knew what the substance was, but he didn’t want to assume something so vile when his mind could just be overreacting. He didn’t want for something like that to happen to the teen. He wasn’t innocent, but he had a sort of naivety that made Marco want to keep him that way.

Instead of pecking through the man’s neck, he chose instead to pull at the man’s hair, taking it out in large clumps and clucking happily with each scream ripped from his throat. The captain tried to move again, to somehow get out from under the phoenix, but Marco just dug his talons in and pecked hard at his fingers.

He cried out, and the blonde couldn’t help the overwhelming sense of satisfaction when he saw actual tears escape the man’s eyes. His gloating however was cut a bit short as he heard a distinct sound of gurgling. Looking further down he noticed how close to the water they were. He may be able to fly, but as soon as he hit that sea water his phoenix abilities would be stolen from him until he was rescued.

Well fine then, it was time to relocate anyway.

Marco readjusted his hold on the barely there marine and unfurled his wings again, allowing his fire to flow freely and extend further than it originally was. He needed bigger wings to carry his excess baggage after all.

With only a few flaps of his wings, Marco was air born and floating over his beloved Moby Dick. The ship was his home, his nest, his protective embrace. He could barely sleep off of it, so it was fitting that he’d see the end to Ace’s tormentor in such a place.

Marco didn’t feel like being any kind of lenient with a man who so clearly did the most damage to his infatuation. It may not have been physical like all the other dead marines did, but for the teen emotional abuse had to have been the worst part. Not to mention…that white substance.

His phoenix dropped the man.

They weren’t nearly high enough to do permanent damage, but the captain clearly lost his breath, judging by his sharp gasps. His brothers and sisters all backed away from the marine as Marco flitted down to the prone figure.

A few of them were visibly shocked when he reverted to his full human form upon landing. It wasn’t a surprise to see them so shocked, normally when Marco was so far into his phoenix as he had been he doesn’t change back until he fulfills what he changed for. The exception being this time he wanted answers before he killed his prey.

He approached the groaning man rather swiftly, his sandals making loud clicks on the deck as he did so, his family backing up with each of his own steps. He kicked the man in the ribs, barely keeping his foot as a foot and not changing into a talon. His goal was simply to roll the man over after all.

Luckily for him the marine complied and was soon facing the almost completely dark sky, gazing up at Marco with slightly clouded eyes. It mattered little to the blonde; he just wanted to watch the man’s face as he forced answers from him.

Marco glanced around and noticed all the members still around, no doubt wanting to be there for the last marine’s last breath, but he didn’t want any of them to hear what he was about to ask the marine captain. He doubted any of them noticed the white splotches on the teen’s rear, not when they were too busy taking in the horrible sight of Ace’s ruined back. It was such a lovely tattoo, one of the artist’s best works actually. The man even said so.

The blonde shook his head lightly before he kneeled down, a knee planting right next to the bloody marine’s body, he lowered his head as he grabbed the captain’s collar and pulled. The man was now half sprawled on the deck, and half lifted into the air by Marco’s hands. That was fine with him; he was going to get his answers out of the asshole no matter the position. This one just happened to grant him a certain amount of privacy in his question asking.

Marco leaned down closer until his lips were only a bit away from the other’s ear. His nose wrinkled at the thought of being so close to the disgusting piece of human life, but he didn’t want Ace to have any reason to hate him more. Not when he already told the others of his precious teen’s secret.

“What did you do to him, yoi?”

The man opened his mouth and some blood splurted out, but Marco didn’t care about that. He slammed the other’s head into the deck before lifting him right back up to whisper the same question. The marine was going to answer him, whether he felt like it or not.

“Heh-cough-ha! Bo-Bobby wa-wasn’t f-far off-ff.” he cackled, blood spittling out with each word. Marco angrily slammed the man’s head back into the deck, his cry louder than his voice had been when answering.

“Who the hell is Bobby?” the phoenix hissed, his eyes flickering into his mask and then back again rather rapidly.

“Wh-whore.”

Marco didn’t bother holding back as he punched the fucker right in the face, his fist leaving indentations around his face, making it look almost caved in. Served him right. But that didn’t completely answer all of his questions, so he brought the man back up once more to ask another question.

“What did you do, yoi?”

“Sl-slut wa-as t-too-fuc-cking tigh-tight. Cou-couldn’t fit-it. R-r-rub-ubbed o-off on-n tha-that per-erfect a-ass.”

Marco was seeing red now. He didn’t know if he should feel relieved his flame hadn’t been raped, ticked off that the marine captain’s spunk had lain across his delightful rear, or incensed that he would dare call his Ace something as vile as a slut.

He chose the latter.

One more slam into the deck and Marco stood, glaring down at the man as he gasped for breath. He wasn’t going to last long, but his phoenix still needed its own retribution. And after the waiting they had done, he wasn’t about to deny it such a treat.

This time, instead of halting his change at his appendages, Marco allowed the phoenix to fully emerge. Feathers of blue fire covered his body, his talons ripped through parts of the deck, his voice box let out a loud caw from his beak, and his mask covered his feathered head.

He was a large phoenix, only a few inches shorter than he was in his human form, his wings spanning a larger length, his body lighter though more deadly. He missed this form.

His family was cheering as he hopped onto the brown haired marine’s torso, talons digging into the tender flesh that was present there. If he wasn’t so angry, so damn irritated with marine, maybe if he wasn’t so craving of the man’s complete and utter destruction, then he’d probably save the meat of the man for a nice after dinner snack.

But this man was filth. And the only thing he’d be doing to the body would be dropping it overboard after he dug out all his intestines.

That’s what Marco did. As soon as he convinced his phoenix that eating the man would be too good for such a piece of trash that he was. His talons dug in as he argued with the normally docile bird, but it didn’t do the damage he wanted.

He corralled his phoenix into agreeing with him and he carefully dug two of his talons into the open gash of the upper abdomen, carefully drawing out a piece of his interior. His stomach it looked like. He looked at it with a cocked head before he tossed it away, most likely into the ocean if the splash was a clue. But he didn’t really care either way, he was back to digging.

The next was smaller and sort of shriveled, maybe the pancreas? That was what the nurse called it right? The organ behind the stomach? Whatever, that too was tossed away. Marco tilted his bird head the other way as a scream reached his mind. The marine was screaming…good.

He kept digging, pulling out random insides, some which he couldn’t accurately name, others he knew quite well what they were. He stopped suddenly much to his family’s surprise. They obviously thought he was going to keep going until all of the captain’s organs were floating in the ocean. They were wrong, Marco didn’t want the pathetic excuse for an existence to die from blood loss, or organ issues, no. He was going to kill the man.

With a short hop from the abdomen to the shoulders, Marco dug his claws in and once again lifted the man into the air, taking care to pay attention to the breathing of his baggage. No use in him dying before the phoenix could kill him.

He started up at that point, flapping his large wings almost lazily as he rose, only slightly moving from over top the Moby as he did so. Marco sort of zoned out as he ascended, choosing instead to contemplate the condition of Ace as he rose instead of about the man he was holding.

When he felt the first tickle of moisture on his feathers, he knew he was high enough to touch the lower layer of clouds. High enough that when he let go, the marine would die on impact. Perfect.

Marco let out a single sharp trill of hate as he looked down at the man, his fear filled eyes gazing back. With a practically malicious caw Marco released his talons, watching with morbid curiosity as the man plummeted to his death.

Upon impact the phoenix straightened out. His beak held high to the skies, wings spread wide, and his talons far and reaching, a delightful song escaping from his throat as he once again gracefully dived for the Moby.

The song continued as he dived, his heart lifting with each foot closer he got to his awaiting family members. This was over. All that was left was for their beloved baby brother to heal, and forgive Marco for the slip of his secret. That’s it. Things would be back to normal. His brothers being reckless, Haruta, Thatch, and Ace planning pranks, and hopefully he’d have a much closer relationship to his black-haired flame.

Marco started to float as he was within air space of the Moby, then he flitted down rather delicately, changing into more and more of a human as he did so. By the time he landed on the deck, he was fully human and just about to make his way to the infirmary to sit with Ace.

He didn’t get far before he was surrounded by his family, pops watching over them with a slight smile, raising himself from his chair as he did so. Obviously his thoughts ran parallel to Marco’s, wanting to go sit with Ace while he slept. Would probably make them both feel better.

Unfortunately they never got the chance, as loud pounding footsteps echoed from the hallway leading to the infirmary. Louder even than the cheers of the family, and said rambunctious group quieted at the sound. Something was wrong.

True to Marco’s thoughts, Vista burst out of the doorway, his hair in a sweaty mess and his hat barely staying on his head. His eyes were wide ad he was breathing heavy. One look at Marco and words seemed to fly out of the swordsman’s mouth.

“Marco! There is something wrong with Ace!”

**TBC**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright y’all~ there you have it~ super long 15.5k word chapter cause I was mean and made y’all wait XP  
> The answer to the question was Santa Claus is Coming to Town, the song One Foot in Front of the Other. :)  
> I dunno when the next one will be out but I have it planned and I am super stoked to get back to writing Ace XP so it might be soon~ then again school started, so it might not be XP I LOVE Y’ALL I SWEAR~  
> Again I am open to all questions and concerns~


	13. Beautiful Images

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well it wasn’t three months this time? Only like two? Yay me?  
> Sorry again this took so long, but it is the longest chapter yet, though only longer than 12 by like 700 words XD but it is the longest!! I think all my upcoming chapters will be roughly this length…thanks to my psycho brain~  
> Anyway, nothing violent in here, but it’s a pretty heavy chapter~ prepare yourselves~  
> I meant to get this out on Pops’ birthday but shit happens~  
> Special thanks to Setsu, my lovely counterpart who makes sure I do not make horrid mistakes~ and to InspiringLight (who I will respond to, just been hella busy, sorry darling) and to AlcardLovesSteakCakes (who I will also respond to, see above)~   
> AND THE SPECIAL HIGHLIGHT OF THIS CHAPTER GOES TO: Sunrise flame, who made me cry and gave me the gift of my first FAN ART of blind Ace!! The link is on my profile(on fanfiction Lifeless Heartless)~   
> Too much talking~ enjoy the fruits of my labor~

**SET SAIL!**

Marco could hear his heart pounding in his chest, could feel his breaths speeding up, could see the rest of the family freezing, could only imagine what might possibly be wrong with the brother they had just finished avenging.

The phoenix seemed to do all the thinking for him, because before he knew it he was pushing past Vista, his fire leaving a cool trail behind him as he rushed towards the infirmary.

He was almost positive parts of him were transforming because every now and then he could hear the clicking of his talons, could feel his wings brushing against the walls, could hear the song escaping his throat.

Of all things that could happen, why did it have to be this? Why did it have to happen to Ace? Hadn’t he been through enough?!

Marco was almost completely lost in his thoughts, he didn’t realize he had arrived at the infirmary until he ran into one of the nurses that specialized in burns, a lovely redhead by the name of Agatha.

Normally this wouldn’t be cause to stop his trek, but the woman was staring at the infirmary door in horror, all the other nurses surrounding her, including head nurse, Ariana.

Just when Marco was about to ask why the hell weren’t they healing Ace, the rest of the commanders showed up behind him. Pops was right in front, Jiru and Haruta right behind him, Izou and Thatch beside him and the others fighting to get closer. Non-commanders were behind the commanders, all fighting for a closer spot.

Ariana turned to Pops with bright eyes, unshed tears hanging on as she moved closer to Pops. Ariana was much like her brother, and rather apathetic, so to see her actually showing emotion really threw them off.

“What’s the matter, child?” Pops asked in his soothing Pops voice and Ariana just about threw herself at him, crying incredibly hard.

Pops just patted her back, just trying to calm her a little but Marco honestly didn’t care very much right now. He had a sole focus and that was Ace. He needed to get closer to him, and he moved to do just that when Ariana started to speak.

“Oh Gods, Pops! It’s horrible!” she yelled face still buried in Pops’ jacket. Said man just continued to pat her on the back. Marco, on the other hand, was prepared to grill her for information when she opened her mouth.

“So many wounds on his body! It’s like they used him as a training dummy!” the present family’s faces darkened at that. But couldn’t help but wonder why Ariana was upset, sure Ace was the youngest and beat up worse than any of her other patients but the woman was known for her steel resolve. She’d be patching up Ace right now if she went by her usual method.

“He’s so injured! And we can’t do anything!”

Marco froze at that. What did she mean she couldn’t do anything?! It was her job! It’s what she DID on the Moby, why couldn’t she fix Ace?!

Marco stalked towards her, not meaning to look intimidating, but that was Ace shredded to pieces in her infirmary. He wasn’t rational when it came to the teen.

Pops gave him a look and Marco schooled his features but he continued to turn Ariana to answer his question.

Her face was tear stained, and briefly Marco felt bad for making his sister sad, but Ace was the only thought in his head.

“What do you mean you can’t do anything for him?” Marco didn’t mean to sound threatening but judging by Ariana’s flinch, he obviously did.

“It’s not that I don’t want to! It’s just-just-” she paused before looking up into Marco’s eyes with just a sorrowful face that Marco immediately felt guilty, despite his phoenix wanting to threaten her for answers.

“There’s something wrong with him!”

Marco’s anger seemed to come back full force at her exclamation and couldn’t hold back his outburst.

“Yes, I get that, yoi! But WHAT is wrong with him?!!” Marco needed to know, he needed to know what it was so he could fix it so Ace could get better!

“Just look for yourself! We want to help but we can’t get close!”

Marco did just that. He could easily see why the nurses couldn’t get close when he opened the door.

Ace was laying on the farthest cot from the door, turned onto his left side, no doubt to keep pressure off his shredded back and burnt chest. His eyes were closed and his face was contorted in obvious pain. From his mouth various grunts and moans escaped, and his lips were twisted into a grimace, though his eyes were clenched tightly. His chest was heaving, and his arms were shaking with his hands clenching and unclenching the fabric of the bed. He looked like the paragon of pain and agony.

But the reason why the nurses couldn’t get close was because both Ace and the bed were on fire.

The red and orange flames engulfed the teen completely, licking at the walls and encroaching on the feet of the cot. Surprisingly nothing was quite burnt yet. The bed was still whole though getting darker and darker, and the walls were only slightly scorched.

“See, Commander Marco! We can’t get close!” Ariana yelled at the blonde’s back, and for a second Marco was startled because he was so focused on Ace.

“How long has he been like this, daughter?” Pops asked soothingly, his voice rushing over all present and calming the hysterical nurse, only slightly.

“Not too long ago…we were about to start treating his back when he suddenly burst into flames…they weren’t hot at first so we figured we’d be ok to start disinfecting the wounds! But the first hit of rubbing alcohol and suddenly the flames were really hot! I think Agatha got singed a little!!”

At her words almost every head turned to Agatha, who flushed at the attention, but Marco only gave her a short side-long glance, he really only had eyes for Ace.

“Are you alright, daughter?” Pops spoke softly, his hand reaching out to touch her cheek. Agatha smiled weakly before showing her hand, with three red fingers and a few blotches on her palm.

“No’ any’ing I havn’t had befor’, ‘ops.” Her teeth were sparkling as she smiled wider. Her statement was pretty true, for being a burn specialist the woman was oddly obsessed with fire, it was rather odd she hadn’t accosted Ace yet….anyway.

“The problem is that we can’t heal him if we can’t get near him, we can’t even calm him down!! Bad things could happen from blood loss if he doesn’t calm down soon!” Poor Ariana was so upset; she really hated not being able to help patients.

But her problem was easily fixed, at least for Marco it was.

Marco disregarded everyone else at that point, he was focused on the face twisted in pain, on the teen, no the man, that he was pretty sure he was in love with. He needed to help him, and he was the only one who could with that protective fire around him.

So the phoenix took one step forward, then another, then another. At the first hint of heat on his skin, his feathers coated his body, shielding him from that particular pain. He knew his family members were watching him at this point, rather hard not to actually with all those eyes pointed at him. But his level of care was so low at that point that the looks just brushed off his back.

He was still approaching Ace, barely a foot from his bed, when the teen screamed in pain, a shrill agony-filled scream that made Marco falter in his steps. With the scream came a pulse of fire, and he heard some of the nurses gasp a little.

The heat barely fazed Marco, in fact he almost relished in it with his phoenix cooing at him in his mind, the mythical bird wouldn’t mind more of Ace’s heat. But that thought was pushed aside as tears started to cascade down the ebony haired youth’s face.

In that moment the blonde knew exactly what was wrong with the youngest.

It wasn’t uncommon on the Moby, lots of members weren’t good with certain things; particularly when it involved women or children. He knew for a fact both Fossa and Blenheim had nightmares about the day Sophia died.

Ace having nightmares would explain just about everything that was going on with him right now, and Marco wasn’t going to let that happen. He wasn’t about to leave Ace to the mercy of his mind and prevent him from healing because of what just occurred. He **wasn’t**.

Marco took that last step towards Ace, his hands raised almost instantly. Slowly he lowered his left hand to lightly touch the teen’s right cheek, the only one visible really.

It almost broke the phoenix’s heart when the person of his affections cried out at his touch. He’d have to be pretty far into his nightmares if he was scared of being touched…then again the same thing happened back on the marine vessel when Marco was rescuing his precious person.

The phoenix didn’t let the cry stop him though. He rested his hand more firmly on the freckled check and started leaning in closer, completely disregarding the audience that was still peeking in through the abnormally large doors.

Carefully Marco touched their foreheads together, closing his eyes and breathing deeply as Ace continued to cry out pitifully.

Ever so slowly he started to release his fire. And ever so slowly he focused it on cocooning the sleeping teen in its reviving flames. He might not be able to heal his infatuation’s injuries but Ace knew his fire, knew it well, knew it intimately, knew it was comfort and not pain. It would help him calm down at the very least.

Just as slowly as he started, Marco continued, and soon could feel the fiercer flames meshing with his own, twisting and turning as if to escape the grasp of the more controlled fire. He knew Ace wasn’t controlling his blaze, knew it was just a reaction to the pain, knew he didn’t want to injure his sisters.

But at the same time the phoenix couldn’t help but smile as Ace’s fire started to waver the more Marco’s connected with it. Couldn’t help but be a little smug as the teen’s tears dried, as his shaking subsided, as his breath evened out, especially not as he sighed and sort of leaned in to Marco’s touch on his face.

In the back of his mind Marco could make out a few gasps of shock or surprise from the door, probably because of the sight he and Ace made but still he was disregarding everything but the precious body now leaning towards him.

The phoenix was all too happy to oblige the unconscious motion, and Marco’s right hand came up to lie lightly on the long dark hair he loved so much.

Unfortunately his own movement brought back the memory that someone had dare to cut said hair and his flames responded by growing ever so slightly. Luckily, however, Ace just sighed again, a happier sigh this time, and sort of rubbed his face into Marco’s hand.

A smile graced said blonde’s face before he leaned in closer, lightly pressing his lips to the side of the ear on Ace’s left side. Another sigh was graced at that and Marco could’ve sworn he heard a giggle back where the rest of the family was, but for his own sanity he ignored it.

Lightly he started to speak into said ear.

“It’s alright, Ace. You can wake up now, yoi. You don’t have to protect yourself anymore, we have you.”

Marco lifted his head back and opened his eyes to watch Ace’s face, scanning for signs of him waking up, or moving, or something to verify that the teen had heard him.

After a few moments of nothing, his light flames caressing the teen’s dying ones, he was going to give up on the younger waking up, but then he saw the flickering underneath Ace’s eyelids.

A bright smile lit up Marco’s face, his feathers flickering a little higher in joy. The teen moaned in response to the flames, his own brightening and pulsing against its counterparts, both sets trying to wrap the other’s owner up in a tight fiery blanket.

The rest of Ace’s body started to twitch, moving only enough for the teen to remember he was injured. When the teen’s hands started to move, Marco was about to start talking to the ebony haired youth, happy he was awake, only to see that said youth’s eyes were still shut and flickering. Not awake yet?

It befuddled the phoenix quite a bit, especially when the arms wrapped themselves around Marco’s broader shoulders, pulling the other closer. Marco resisted only because of the burns that littered the younger’s chest, he didn’t want to aggravate them.

Unfortunately Ace was a brat and kept pulling, and Marco lost his hold and almost crashed right into the still sleeping idiot. Luckily for him though he didn’t land on any part of Ace and instead his mouth was right back next to the teen’s ear. Good.

“Wake up, yoi. We are all worried about you.”

He spoke softer this time, more gravelly, hoping the shift in tone would shock the other into responsiveness and the world of the awake.

Marco was not disappointed when suddenly the harsh flames pulsed, and his fire user’s eyes flicked open, once again revealing to the phoenix those lovely pale irises.

“There you are, yoi.”

**-this is a line dammit-**

This was a nightmare. It had to be. This couldn’t possibly be reality, it couldn’t. He remembered. Remembered hard hands, a warm body, comforting flames, he remembered righteous anger. He **did**.

That was why the hands trailing down his bare thighs were just a figment. That’s why the cruel laugh was all in his head. That’s why the mob jeers were not there. Because he was saved. He **was**.

It was like torture.

Remembering what happened, with so much detail. The pain, the hate, the unworthiness, the feeling in his gut that someone would come, but would they be quick enough? The absolute horror he felt when those disgusting hands were first placed on his shorts.

He never wanted to experience it.

He’d seen it happen, back when he could see, though not all that well. He remembered covering Luffy’s eyes because he and Sabo were immune, but their baby brother should remain as innocent as possible.

The adults in Grey Terminal weren’t that despicable. They stole, they robbed, they killed, but to them the act, the mere thought of doing something like that to another was a sentence of death. They wouldn’t stand for it, not in a community where you already had to watch out for other criminal acts.

Edge Town was different.

There were different kinds of criminals in the dark places of Edge Town; those too poor for any of the higher towns, and those who would be killed upon stepping into Grey Terminal. Despite what the nobles seemed to think, there was honor amongst thieves, and the thieves of the trash heap wouldn’t stand for someone doing that to another. It wasn’t right.

To Ace the scariest part, the most horrifying part of the whole experience was realizing that marines, the ones Gramps preached about being so good, were more despicable than trash thieves.

He knew they were hypocrites, but he’d never had it thrown in his face before, not like he had on that boat, on that damn piece of hell.

A sudden memory of those hands caused a sharp scream to escape him; accompanied by a wave of fire so intense the marines would have been hard pressed to stay near him, and would probably be on fire if they tried. The feel of his flames only cemented the fact that he was free, and just in a nightmare, even further into his brain.

Being disconnected from his flames, from his greatest crutch since he left Goa Kingdom, was like losing a leg, or an arm for a normal person. He was the fire, the fire was him, having that cut off by those infernal handcuffs was second only to the marine captain’s deeds.

Just the hint at what that man did to him, forced on him, made his tears renew. He didn’t know if he was crying outside of his mind, but inside he was falling apart.

It was easier when it happened to someone else, someone he wasn’t connected to, someone he had no attachment to, someone he blamed for not being careful enough. This time it wasn’t someone else, he couldn’t keep the mindset that it couldn’t happen to him, because although it was not quite what he witnessed in Edge Town, the fact that it happened to him made it all the more worse.

He and Sabo never talked about it after seeing it, never wanted to confirm the fact that things like that could actually happen to anyone, that there were no such things as being excluded. His tears fell harder at that, the thought of Sabo, the thought of Luffy, and what their faces would look like when he told them, if he told them.

A touch to his face shocked him, and brought forth another startling realization he wished he’d never thought of.

Marco rescued him. Marco saw him like that, saw him weak, beaten down, broken, less of a man than he already was.

He cried out.

That had to be the worst thing of them all. The man who plagued his dreams saw him violated. He’d never want Ace now, not after that, not after he saw the aftermath of him being used, not after he saw Ace with the evidence still there.

For once Ace wished he had the strength to scream out about how unfair the world was. Why him? Why was it **always** him?!!

Again thoughts of ending it all plagued through his mind, reminding him that nothing was keeping him here. He didn’t deserve to live, he never should have been born, he shouldn’t be allowed to continue plaguing people with his presence. He didn’t deserve it. No sympathy, no friends, no family, nothing.

The hand seemed to firm its touch against his cheek and then something harder than a hand touched to his forehead, his thoughts jostled and he wasn’t thinking about anything but that touch. That familiar feeling he just couldn’t quite place.

Idly he thought he could hear himself crying, which didn’t make any sense; he didn’t feel like he was crying…

Any thoughts he may have been forming at that thought all vanished at the feeling of something he thought he’d never feel again. It brought forth feelings, emotions, and memories that seemed to have been lost into the abyss of his mind in the past few hours of pain.

He remembered back when he could see, running through the bright green jungle with a brother on either side laughing and joking around like he hadn’t before.

The week he spent with Garp, Luffy, and Sabo, training to be able to pretend like he could see when he lost his sight.

Every single day after that when Luffy or Sabo held on to his hand or arm while they walked through Edge Town during those first few weeks of blindness. Even though he acted like he hated physical affection, just that touch of another’s flesh made his mind light up in joy.

More recent memories began to filter in as well.

Izou calling him beautiful, Thatch fishing him out of the water, Haruta and him playing that prank on Izou, Pops’ warm presence and laugh, Rakuyo chasing Macy around the deck, Ariana surprise tackling the Artist and making him squeak.

And the bright memory that seemed to pulse and yell “Pay attention to me!!”

Marco’s appearance, said man letting Ace touch him to imprint is image in the teen’s mind, the laugh the man gave out when he was around Ace, the way his heart started to beat faster whenever he neared the man or when he thought about him.

Marco’s flames.

That’s what it felt like. That’s why it reminded him of happier times, because it was the best feeling he’d ever experienced. He couldn’t hold back his own fire.

It pulsed out of him in waves, lashing out, protective and violent, much like it has been for what felt like the past few hours. Ace felt like he couldn’t control them, like they were a fierce unleashed dog trying to protect its master in the only way it knew how.

He hoped that Marco wasn’t hurt by them.

But more and more he could feel the soothing fire cocoon him, wrap him up in a blanket of safety, and with each extending reach of the flames, his own guard dog flickered. It was like his blaze couldn’t decide what to do. Was this a good feeling or bad? Should he let him in or not?

Carefully his mind started to put itself back together; the happy memories staying more toward the front, and the unhappy ones being shoved into the back for later. His cheeks no longer felt like small rivers, instead more like dried up creeks and he was no longer shaking in fear of the specter of his mind.

It felt so good.

He just relaxed, his body sort of slumped and he could tell he sighed. The hand on his cheek became so much more real at that point and he couldn’t stop himself from leaning into that comforting touch.

He felt so welcome with that hand on his cheek, the forehead on his own. It felt intimate, important, and, dare he say, almost loving. He almost wanted to smile, but a flash of pain and a mocking laugh quickly stopped that motion.

Ace did frown some when he felt that the body, the person so closely connected to him, was distracted by someone else. That wasn’t allowed. He had to get that attention back to him, he needed it, craved it.

The teen leaned in to the warmth, to the fire, to the welcoming comfort, hoping that a closer proximity would lead to some more of that delicious attention.

It felt like he was being rewarded when another hand rested on his hair. It was soft touch but it felt so heavenly compared to the harsh touches of so long ago. He couldn’t have been happier, even though thoughts of marines cutting his hair tried to break through, he just pushed it back with the comforting sensations of the now.

Air was expelled softly and he smiled lightly to himself, probably only in his head but that hardly mattered. He was so safe. He rubbed his face against Marco’s hand.

He knew it was Marco above him. The fire, the soft touches, the light caresses. The only other person it could possibly be was Izou but the okama didn’t have those glorious flames, those were a feature granted only to Marco.

This feeling couldn’t get any better. Marco was so close to him, treating him so gently and softly. Normally it would insult him, such coddling, but after what he had just been through, hell, he needed some comfort, even he could admit to that.

But then it did get better. Warm and slightly chapped lips pressed close to his only uncovered ear, his left one.

Ace really couldn’t stop the happiness he expressed with a simple relieved sigh. Maybe Marco wasn’t disgusted with him, maybe the man didn’t hate him, maybe he could actually be with Marco, maybe he wasn’t a burden, maybe he wasn’t the scorn of society.

Now it couldn’t get any better.

“It’s alright, Ace. You can wake up now, yoi. You don’t have to protect yourself anymore, we have you.”

The teen needed to stop saying it couldn’t get any better, cause it seemed like it always did. Marco’s rough and slightly husky voice made him want to shiver. God he loved that voice. It saved him from that piece of hell he was in, it brought back bright things, and his mind just settled.

Happy thoughts were drifting through his head, memories, ideas, plans for the future, for living. Just because of Marco’s voice.

His flames were retreating back to him, feeling like they didn’t need to protect him anymore and Ace was glad for that. He could get some actual sleep now, not restless turning because of those scenes playing on an endless loop.

Unfortunately it seemed like Marco didn’t want him to be asleep. He felt the elder’s flames caress the few of his own that were still outside his body, and it jerked him into semi-awareness, his eyes twitching under his lids.

The cool flames arched against him and he couldn’t hold back the moan that worked its way out of his own damn voice box. His fire seemed eager enough to respond to the heightening of Marco’s and tried to wrap itself around Marco’s body. Surprisingly the elder man’s was doing the same to Ace, wrapping him up more tightly in their strange coolness.

His whole body jerked at the contact and he was reminded of the countless pains inflicted upon him on the marine’s ship. Fuck, not a good thing to remember.

If he couldn’t move his body as a whole then he’d start with just a part. His fingers started to move, his hand sliding lightly against the soft sheet. He was tempted to force himself out of his hazed sort of half sleep but he was really tired and would rather sleep, though he did miss Marco terribly.

Well Ace’s body made the choice for him, his arms sliding up the firm body of the man leaning over him, caressing lightly at the tense muscles but not stopping in their trailing. They settled around Marco’s neck, and the teen gave into his urges and tried to pull the man down, closer to his body.

His arms creaked with the effort, sharp strikes of pain shooting up from his forearms to his shoulders and back down to his hands. Right, his arms were broken.

But Ace ignored the pain. He wanted Marco closer to him more than he wanted to not be in pain. He didn’t care, he just needed more contact.

Marco seemed to think otherwise and was resisting Ace’s pull, no doubt wanting to save the fire user from some unneeded pain or some other chivalrous idea, but the teen cared little. He wanted the man to touch him more, and dammit he would!

Ace yanked at the broader male and success! Marco fell onto the bed! Not so successfully, only their waists were touching. But the man’s sinful lips were right back next to his ear. The teen barely restrained his excited shudder.

“Wake up, yoi. We are all worried about you.”

His voice was still so sensual to Ace’s senses; softer but more gravelly, sounding more like a growl than a soft prod. Gods did the man do things to Ace he’d never felt before.

All? We? Who else was there? Who was worried? Why were they worried? What happened?

Ace’s fire reacted to his sudden shift in emotions and pulsed from his body, a blazing sort of heat he hoped wouldn’t hurt Marco.

His eyes snapped open. And barely a second later had the man spoken again, louder this time, almost like he was talking to more than just the no longer sleeping him.

“There you are, yoi.”

“M-Mar-Marco?” was that his voice? He sounded so hoarse. He needed water, he couldn’t speak like this, he’d end up losing his voice for sure, how would he communicate then?

“Shshsh. Don’t speak, yoi. I just needed to know that you were ok.” Marco’s voice was so soft, so very soothing. His fire wrapped around them both, purring and popping like a contented cat, he was so glad he was here.

“W-wh-what?” He tried again and got a reprimanding growl from the man above him and he couldn’t lie and say that it didn’t do anything for him.

He was blinking rapidly, not used to his eyes being all too open, not after practically clenching them shut while he was being passed around like a piñata.

A shudder raced through him at those memories. Don’t think about it, Ace. Put it away. Later, think about it later, when no one is around.

“Don’t try to stay awake, yoi. You need your sleep. Just try to keep the flames down, okay? The nurses need to treat your wounds, yoi.”

Nurses? What?

Ace wanted to voice his questions, to keep hearing Marco’s voice, but he was so tired. He could barely keep himself cognizant at this point, despite just waking up, because the few moments of sleep he did have so far were plagued with nightmares.

Marco made soothing noises, almost like a bird’s song, as he stroked lightly at the teen’s hair. Ace could feel himself already halfway to the dream land. He could so easily nod off, but first he needed to do what the taller man had asked.

With hardly a conscious thought he wrapped his fire around his core, around and around and around until all his fire was locked tightly in his body. Sleepily he patted Marco’s cheek before his arms fell limply, one on his side the other against the mattress.

Quiet sleep claimed him soon after.

**-Hahhah! Another line ahoy!-**

Ever since Haruta knew about Ace’s fire power she knew that he’d be perfect for Marco. The blonde had been lonely for so long, though he always claimed he wasn’t because he had his siblings, but Haruta knew it wasn’t the same feeling. Marco had lived much longer than most of them, well all of them really, there is even speculation that the phoenix was older than Pops. So there had to be some leftover loneliness from back then, right?

As a bird of fire it only makes sense he’d be drawn to someone who could control the element. But Ace’s ability wasn’t the only reason Haruta thought they were well matched, Ace was young, changing, fun, headstrong, and adorable. Everything Marco wanted but didn’t know he did.

Haruta was an activist of Marco and Ace getting together in every way they can. Marco deserved to be happy. And so did Ace.

Maybe that’s why seeing him like he currently was in the infirmary was so heartbreaking.

Seeing Ace, strong unwavering little brat that he is, so damaged, so utterly broken, was a blow so staggering that she was not prepared for that hit.

She had, for some reason, built this image of a powerful and steadfast figure that Ace was. Even not knowing him for long the image appeared almost instantly. Ace was unable to completely fall, he kept getting up, kept fighting back, kept heading forward.

He became almost a similar figure to Pops in her eyes. Not as another father figure or anything like that, more like another someone who wouldn’t be pushed down for anything.

Haruta’s heart really hurt when she saw Ace’s broken and battered body. Wrapped in his ever present flames, only these were more volatile and were lashing out at everyone; he seemed more aggressive and more dangerous than he had ever been before.

His fire looked so different now. Fighting, and pulsing in the room, almost growling at the people now crowding the doorway. Not even when Ace was attacking Pops had she ever seen his fire like this.

The first instinct was to cry. Really. Although she was well known throughout the crew as being one of the hardest nuts to crack, this really got her in the worst kind of way. Ace was her precious younger brother, one of the very few that existed on the Moby, the rest all being older than her. And he was so similar to her, they pranked, they joked, they laughed…they lied.

For some reason it never occurred to her to tell Ace that she was in a committed relationship, he never really asked but he always seemed to assume that she was single. Much like Haruta always assumed that the fire teen could see.

When she had first heard Ariana say that she couldn’t heal Ace, Haruta was prepared to smack her, the Artist’s half-sister or not. But this…poor Ace. She could understand Ariana not getting close now, although his normal fire never harmed them, this flame seemed like it very well could burn every single one of them to a crisp.

Haruta wanted to curse Marco when he took that first step towards the flame covered teen. Even if the phoenix could heal himself it would still hurt!! Right?!!! He had always told her that though he was immortal the hits almost always hurt, Ace’s fire couldn’t be any different!

She opened her mouth, ready to tell him to stop walking, that he was going to get hurt, when her thoughts were shattered to pieces by a single shrill scream from Ace’s form. It was so full of pain, and hate, and agony, that nothing else seemed important.

Marco felt it too. The pain in the teen’s voice, and just glancing to either side it was obvious that the rest of the family was no different. A sort of looming sadness seemed to fill the hall and Haruta was close to yelling at all of them. Ace wouldn’t want to wake up to this kind of atmosphere!!

She had to do something. Had to make the mood change, had to make the family more positive, had to cheer everyone up, something, anything! Anything to make this oppressive air disperse!!

Haruta never even had the chance to think of something.

The tears that started to cascade down the teen’s freckled cheeks spurred something in Marco that she hadn’t seen in a long time.

The phoenix was never one prone to action. It was a creature solely of think, think, plan, wait, reevaluate, do. Of course someone would probably argue that their little revenge scheme was the opposite, but it wasn’t. Pretty sure if Marco were less level-headed he would have just killed the captain, and not be patient enough to wait for other members to get revenge, but that’s beside the point.

Marco was a thinking person. That was the point.

So when he just all of a sudden moved close to Ace and touched his cheek, well, Haruta was surprised. Especially considering that the blonde tried to think of different outcomes to his own actions. When thinking right, Marco probably would’ve guessed that the prone teen wouldn’t respond well to touch.

His fearful cry only proved Haruta’s silent point.

Logically she was suspecting Marco to back up at that point, but then it seems the phoenix wasn’t in his entirely sane frame of mind. Considering he was touching Ace, who was on fire!! What kind of dumbass would touch a person on fire?! Honestly!

But would the fire actually hurt him as a phoenix? Obviously Marco could heal himself but the phoenix was also known for being the bird of fire. Was the first division commander immune to fire? Or was he just healing as fast as he is being burned? Did it hurt?

She never questioned her older brother’s fruit power before but now she couldn’t help but wonder if the blonde actually had to experience the pain before it healed. Did he just build up a high pain tolerance? Oh gods, was he protecting them all at the cost of bringing pain onto himself? Shit. Haruta wasn’t sure if she could deal with that if that was the case.

For being the head of the intelligence division of the Whitebeard Pirates, she sure didn’t know too much about devil fruits. She would change that after all this drama, talk to Ace, Marco, Pops, maybe even Rakuyo about Macy.

Ah, she got distracted again.

With a simple shake of her head she returned to her enigmatic older brother and the equally enigmatic younger. And of course Marco is completely disregarding the fact that he may or may not light himself on fire, and has touched foreheads with Ace. The teen just continued his cries, which may or may not have broken Haruta’s heart a little more than it already had.

Ace shouldn’t sound scared like that, not ever.

There were plenty of things Haruta’s analytical mind expected to happen after Marco initiated the rather intimate gesture. Many situations and scenes played in her head as a result of the phoenix’s move. This. This was not it.

Marco pushed his fire out of his body. Bright blues and yellows swirling and dipping, simulating an ocean made of fire; it created possibly the most vibrant contrast to the reds and oranges of the other more aggressive flames.

Haruta was entranced as she watched as the light blues and yellows covered the other flames almost protectively. Wrapping up the redder fire, seemingly to sooth, if fire could have emotions, it seemed like a mother wrapping her distressed child in a comforting hug.

The red flames just arched back, lashing and whipping out in what looked like a struggle to be released from the blue flames. It very similarly matched the frame of mind she felt the two were in. Ace who wanted to escape from the no doubt violent visions of what just happened to him, and Marco who wanted to protect and heal the younger from said actions.

It hurt to watch it.

So many things about today made Haruta want to just steal Jiru and hide in the crow’s nest and not leave until her heart was back in its wholeness. But, as the red fire started to settle, she realized how important a moment this was going to become.

Ace’s fire wavered. It stopped fighting, and the actions of the flames were echoed in the teen on the mattress. His tears stopped flowing, he was no longer shaking, he started to breath slower and more evenly, then he sighed and leaned into Marco’s touch on his face.

This, this scene, this image that would forever be embedded in her mind, seemed to heal all her hurts, her pains, her sorrows. It was almost as if she was being healed by the phoenix, itself.

The two almost radically different fires appeared to start an intricate dance, pulsing together and colliding in peaceful patterns. Combing and meshing in a way she never thought would be possible; two different fires, one aggressive and one passive, holding together as if they were one.

They were together, but at the same time still separate.

Haruta couldn’t hold back the breath that escaped her. She wasn’t alone either, Jiru next to her gripped her hand tighter and inhaled with surprise, Pops let out a light laugh, and various other reactions were easily heard.

Marco and Ace made a truly spectacular sight.

It felt like she stopped breathing when Ace’s body actually responded instead of his fire and he started to lean toward the larger figure hovering over him. Marco answered in kind by lifting his right hand up and placing it on the chopped strands of the teen’s hair.

That pissed her off actually. Not Marco’s movement, but rather the remembrance as to why Ace kept his hair long and to how those fucking marines dared to cut his hair. Besides being useful to hide the teen’s blindness, his hair was gorgeous, cutting that is like a violation of the highest decree.

The red and orange fire expanded at that, almost like a peacock, showing off its plumage to all who would look in its direction. Though that seemed to fit Marco more, Haruta felt it aptly described Ace’s fire rather well.

Of course, Ace just had to top the beautiful image of the mixing reds and yellows and oranges and blues by nuzzling into Marco’s hand that was still on his cheek. Haruta would now on and forever describe Ace as a cat, because in this moment he went from strutting peacock to adorable cat in a second.

She thought she would have other emotions about seeing her forever romantically alone brother so, well, intimate with the newest member of their family. But all she felt was a searing sort of happiness, the kind that burned itself into her heart and would never leave.

But that was fine, she was glad for Marco, especially when she saw the smile that graced his face after the teen’s move. Of course the phoenix just makes it seem all the more like the crew was watching something they shouldn’t when he leans closer and presses his lips lightly to the side of Ace’s only visible ear.

Izou giggled at that. He would too…Haruta wasn’t the only one on Team Get Marco With Ace, though it was obvious the okama was a little happier than he should be. Oh well, he deserved what giggle worthy things as he could with Thatch being such a tool, okay well less of a tool lately, but still.

Note to self, ask Izou what the hell was going on with him and Thatch. They weren’t together, she would have known, but the chef definitely seemed possessive back when they were avenging their younger brother.

Haruta noticed Marco’s mouth moving next to Ace’s ear, but she only caught a few key words like “alright”, “wake”, “protect”, and “have”. It might have been something dirty but with the state the teen was in it was most likely a few words of assurance for the ebony haired one.

Then Marco lifted his head back up and opened his eyes, which means they must have closed them at some point, but it seems Haruta was a little too out of it to notice. It surprised her a little to see his eyes flicking so much, scanning Ace’s face like it held the secret to life or something.

Ahh right, Ace is asleep, he’s probably checking for a sign of waking or something similar.

The only response Haruta saw was the dimming of the orange and red flames, wilting like some bizarre flower. In return Marco’s started to caress the dying ones, maybe to perk them back up? Get some response if not a bodily one?

Haruta almost wanted to shed a tear when she saw Marco’s shoulders slump, almost as if he was defeated, which meant that Ace was nowhere near waking up. Damn.

Almost as simple as flicking a switch, Marco’s posture changed. A wide smile spread from cheek to cheek and his fire started arching higher into the air, tickling the wooden ceiling. The only thing keeping Haruta from freaking out about the ship catching on fire was remembering that Marco couldn’t light things on fire.

Of course the moment had to bend back towards intimate as Ace moaned, his own flames soaring and caressing and trying to wrap Marco’s in a blanket.

Just what the Moby needed, two fire people obsessed with keeping the other safe walking around.

Suddenly Ace’s body started to twitch before it stilled completely, most likely from all the wounds that decorated his tanned skin. Another thing that only served to tick her off more.

Then his hands started to clench and unclench, to which Marco responded by opening his mouth to talk to the now awake teen but then he frowned. What was going on? Was Ace awake? Was something worse going on? Was Ace going to die?!!

Haruta felt her heart try to escape her chest when the flame brain teen’s arms lifted and wrapped around Marco’s shoulder and neck, pulling him down if Marco’s restraining said anything. Well he should strain to not be pulled down, Ace is really hurt!

But of course she knew the youngest and wasn’t really surprised as he kept pulling until Marco lost his hold and practically crashed right into the injured pirate. He kind of landed weird though, not laying on any of Ace’s wounds but still pressed to where the phoenix’s lips were back to being next to the teen’s ear.

Another murmuring from the blonde and this time she heard more of the sentence, making out, “Wake…yoi…all worried…you.”

Definitely not sexual.

But her older brother’s tone was softer now, though a little more gravelly. Was the great Marco the Phoenix being affected?! Oh she hoped so.

It took work for an evil smile to not spread across Haruta’s face. Even more so when she felt a nudge to her ribs from a certain crossdressing brother. At least she wasn’t the only one with the right train of thoughts.

Then she had to be surprised out of her mind when Ace’s fire pulsed again, flaring out enough to where even she felt the heat from the flames.

That was the first time she properly saw the teen’s eyes.

Haruta felt dumb.

It was rare. She was the intelligence division commander. She seldom missed something. So to see Marco proven true, to see the physical aspect of Ace’s blindness, it was a huge blow to her pride.

But his eyes were really something to look at. They just fit him for some reason, and, even though his hair was cut forcefully, he looked better like this. Complete. Dangerous. It was a good look.

And if she had her way he’d never hide his eyes again. Tell the marines that they got their asses handed to them by a badass blind pirate. Hell yeah.

“There you are, yoi.”

Why is it that the first time Haruta properly heard Marco it was something not at all revealing to his feelings? Life. It’s not fair.

“M-Mar-Marco?”

Oh gods. Was that Ace? Was that Ace’s voice? Haruta could feel the tears at the edge of her eyes at the hoarseness of that voice. Poor Ace. Did he scream it hoarse? Or is it just from not using it?

But before she could think too much about Ace, Marco interrupted her thoughts with his own voice, even though she could only catch a few words again. “speak”, “yoi”, “needed”, and “ok” were all that she heard this time.

Then again his fire also flared out again and wrapped around both of them on the bed, popping and caressing their skin. So not fair. Haruta wanted to have a fire hug…

“W-wh-what?”

If Ace kept talking Haruta was going to take Jiru and leave, regardless if she wants to know what happened exactly, or confirming that he isn’t dying. Ace was light, he was bright, he shined, his voice shined, it shouldn’t sound like he smoked more than Fossa did. Which was nigh impossible.

Of course she heard Marco’s growl, almost like he was reprimanding the ebony haired teen, which Haruta didn’t doubt. That meant that whatever the peacock said before included him telling the injured teen not to talk.

Good. Haruta didn’t want her poor brother’s voice to be broken because he didn’t know when to keep his mouth shut.

She shifted her gaze from Marco’s person to the slightly smaller form of Ace’s, of course by smaller she meant in comparison to Marco and not herself. Gods knew she was the smallest of all the siblings. Ok someone on deck needs to have kids. She can’t be the shortest forever dammit!!

Anyway, Ace was blinking rapidly, covering and uncovering his very pretty hazy eyes, almost like he wasn’t used to having air hitting the eyeballs.

That’s why the marines cut his air. No doubt Ace was clenching them shut to keep them from having knowledge of a perceived weakness, but also cause he was fucking stubborn. The marine probably cut his hair cause the teen refused to open his eyes.

Just then she came back out of her revelations to see a shudder make its way through Ace’s bloody body, probably due to unwanted memories.

“Don’t try to stay awake, yoi. You need your sleep. Just try to keep the flames down, okay? The nurses need to treat your wounds, yoi.”

Again with the being loud when not saying anything juicy. It’s like he knew the family was there, including the gossips, and didn’t want to give anything away about his feelings toward the hotheaded youth.

That was fine. Let Marco keep his fake sense of security, Haruta knows the truth, she’d get it out of him eventually. That’s all that matters.

Her thoughts about her own knowledge were abruptly cut off by familiar sounds escaping from Marco’s throat. It was a song, a phoenix song, with no words and only a tune that brought about the brightest feelings a person could have.

Haruta loved that song.

It made her forget.

Made her forget she didn’t look too much like a female, made her forget that if she walked into certain towns or islands she’d be killed on sight. Made her forget that her and Jiru had been together for so long without getting married, made her forget the horrible things she has seen happen to her family. It made her forget why her youngest brother was laying on an infirmary bed, bleeding from most parts of his body.

It was the best song the phoenix could ever sing.

Idly she watched with hazy thoughts as the orange and red fire slowly disappeared, coiling tightly around Ace before sinking into his chest.

Maybe Ace could get some quality sleep now.

**­-This is a line. A line of lineness-**

Edward Newgate, more commonly known across the oceans as Whitebeard, was tired. Never before had he ever felt his age more than he did now.

Sitting in his chair on the deck of his great vessel, the Moby Dick, watching the sun start ascending into the sky, he thought about the day before. The day he really wished never happened.

His newest and youngest son had been on an easy mission, just scout out the next island and report back. It was so simple. And his other children were all prepared to throw the party of a lifetime when he returned.

They never did have that party.

Ace was held captive by a ship of unknown marines and tortured. He didn’t have the full damage report but Edward knew it was going to be a long list.

Unfortunately that wasn’t the worst the day got. No, the worst part was when it was revealed to him by his eldest son that his new charge was completely blind.

He never even thought it was possible. Sure it was rare among the seas but he knew of a marine with quite the amount of strength by the name of Issho Fujitora who was also blind. So he was not quite worried about Ace being on the seas with such a disability.

No was really bothered him was that he didn’t notice. He knew that Ace was hiding something ever since he was brought onto the ship but after the brat told him about his father, Edward figured that was that. No more secrets to be hidden.

He never thought that his child was still hiding his true self from them, from him. Ace freely called Edward “Pops” and every time he did, just like when all his children called him that, he smiled to himself.

All he wanted was a family. He didn’t care about Roger’s treasure, or becoming the “King of the Seas”, he just wanted a family.

But with family comes so many issues he didn’t think he’d ever have to deal with. Haruta having doubts about her appearance, Izou and Thatch’s love drama, Blenheim and Fossa’s Sophia, Marco’s Big Brother Syndrome, and now Ace who hid such an important part of himself.

Edward couldn’t hold in a sigh as he watched the sun reach halfway out of the horizon.

Nothing to do about it now it seems. Ace must have had a good reason and all they can do now, as his family, is to accept him and help him overcome whatever issues his blindness may have caused.

And help him heal from his ordeal with the marines.

Just thinking about it had his blood pumping faster.

How dare they do something like that to his son. To his youngest son. To any of his children.

He was always proud of his children but watching them come together to punish the people who had harmed one of their own made feel prouder than he ever has before, a feat he never knew was possible.

But it still brings back the point that Ace was going to have a lengthy recovery time. One does not simply just get better after what he’d gone through, even not knowing the full injury list, he knew Ace was going to have some problems.

On top of all that, he also has to worry about how his other children will react to Ace’s blindness. Obviously they would still love him as a brother, but none of them have ever been around a blind person before. They aren’t going to know what to do, how to act, or even if they should change their behavior at all.

Knowing Ace he’d probably light everyone on fire if they tried to coddle him.

Oh well. He’ll think about that when the time comes. He didn’t become the most powerful pirate on the seas by worrying about the future.

Edward closed his eyes and sighed again.

Today was going to be a busy day.

And it all truly started with being approached by his daughter, Ariana.

“Pops…” she whispered quietly, approaching his giant chair from behind, no doubt coming from the door behind him.

He opened his eyes and moved his head to look over at her. She was firm standing, as normal, and her face was back to being rather apathetic, though her eyes were all red and puffy from her crying yesterday.

Edward couldn’t stop the smile spreading across his face as she started scuffing her feet on the deck. It has been a long time since he saw the shy and uncertain part of her, not since she joined if he recalled correctly.

“What is it, daughter?” he never got tired of using those words. “Son” and “daughter”. Being able to say them made him happier than all the gold in the world.

The flush that appeared on his daughter’s dark cheeks was a sign that she never got tired of hearing them either. Which also made him happy beyond belief.

“We finally finished patching up Ace…It was…there was a lot of damage.” She spoke quietly before turning to face him fully, determination clear across her face.

“Do you want to hear the injury list privately or would you like me to wait for the commander’s meeting before breakfast?”

That was a good question.

Edward wanted to know what happened to his youngest son now. He knew the abouts of what happened based on his other children’s deductions and information gathering during their vengeance yesterday. But he didn’t have a full account of what was wrong with Ace.

He wanted to know as soon as possible but he wasn’t the only one still wondering. His eldest was surely driving himself into a tizzy worrying since he wasn’t allowed in the infirmary until the nurses were done. And he was the closest to the teen at this point so he deserved to know.

Not to mention all his other sons and daughters, but Edward knew Ace wouldn’t want everyone to know about what he went through. The brat was stubborn that way. But the commanders deserved to know.

In the interests of his children, he could wait for the meeting.

“Although I would like to know sooner rather than later, wait for the meeting, daughter. They all deserve to know what happened as well.” He sighed again, rising from his chair to stretch, mindful of the oxygen tank on his right side.

He hated that damn thing. But Ariana demanded he wear it while not engaged in acts of piracy.

What does she think sailing under a jolly roger meant?

Oh well, best to appease her about this so she wouldn’t bother him too much about his excessive sake drinking. He was old enough to do what he wanted when he wanted dammit.

“Not to mention the meeting is starting soon, right Pops?” She smiled much like her brother at her own words. Dastardly siblings they were.

“Gurarara! That’s right! How about you accompany me to the meeting room. Best to get the worst part out of the way first after all!”

“Of course, Pops.” She smiles and Edward turns and starts to head to the only door that leads to the upper deck, Ariana following only a few steps behind.

He was worried about the list. The shyness in his head nurse’s voice was enough for him to determine that it wasn’t going to be good; nothing easy to swallow any way. Especially with Marco more agitated than his usual apathy. This was going to be both informing and headache inducing.

Edward was about to open the door when a yank to his nose stopped him.

Right, that stupid oxygen tank. He still hated that damn thing.

But Ariana was giggling lightly and that made him feel a little better about the cursed object, it made his daughter laugh. That was a good enough reason to keep it around a little longer.

Before he could turn around to get it Ariana’s heels started clicking and she brought it over to him. The damn thing was huge but then the head nurse had a strength few could match. She was a Whitebeard Pirate after all, she had to be able to hold her own.

“Thank you, daughter.” He smiled down at her, rubbing one if his large fingers on her head. She smiled brightly in return. Good. Happiness is the best look for her.

“Not at all Pops.” She returned, walking forward in front like she was leading him to the meeting room. What a cheeky brat.

“Gurarara, cheeky brat.”

Edward followed anyway, oxygen tank trailing behind him as he took loud thunderous steps. The walk was a short one, the meeting room was just down the hall after all. And it looked like almost all the commanders were there already. Brats.

Ariana wasted little time in throwing open the door and strutting in like she owned the ship instead of him. It was good she was back to normal, it was odd seeing her so reticent.

For once someone else besides Edward caused a flurry of movement. It was almost as if his sons and daughter didn’t see him in the doorway as they all rushed to crowd around Ariana. Save, of course, Marco, who was still seated and glaring out of one of the only portholes.

More relationship drama it seems. And he thought Thatch and Izou were bad. Why couldn’t they be like Jiru and Haruta and just be together already?

He raised his bisento, glad he brought it with him and didn’t leave it on the deck with his chair like he was planning to. With a swift movement of his hand, the one not holding the damnable oxygen tank, a loud boom echoed through the large room.

Silence greeted his ears, and if he were anyone else he would have smirked at the instant effect of his little tap.

All eyes turned to him and quite of few of his sons lowered their heads in shame. Regardless of how worried they were for their younger brother, their position as commanders was far more important. Even if he agreed with their haste.

One by one they all backed away from Ariana and sat down at their specified chairs, surrounding the largest one at the head. Slowly he took a step and headed toward his chair, right next to Marco and across the room from where the only nurse was currently standing.

“Morning Pops.” His eldest greeted him normally as he sat down, but Edward could detect the subtle notes of an angry phoenix. Hell he could see the blue flames flickering just under his skin.

“Morning, son.” He spoke back, all his other present children repeating the greeting as they fully settled in their seats.

Discretely Edward spoke to his eldest son, somewhat ignoring the others as they caught up on the usual goings on around the ship.

“After your sister goes over her report you are free to go back with her to the infirmary to sit with Ace.”

Marco’s head snapped up at that and he turned wide blue eyes to look at his own directly. Ahh his children were so refreshing from all the brats around the seas.

“But, Pops, I have to-”

“Don’t worry about it. You would be better off in the infirmary waiting for news.” Edward cut off his son and spoke quickly, wanting to finish this conversation so he could get to the report from Ariana.

He loved his children, but one of them was in the infirmary and he needed to know why, how, and how long it’ll be expected for recovery.

“Thanks, Pops.” Marco was stubborn, but unlike other stubborn idiots he won’t name he at least knows when to accept things.

Edward waved off his thanks and turned back to the rest of his children, readying himself to hear things that will make him want to destroy that blasted navy vessel all over again.

Ariana cleared her throat lightly and all eyes were turned to her. She wasn’t one to change under pressure, but anyone could see she was nervous about what she had to report. That wasn’t good for anyone. Her, Ace, or the commanders.

Better to bite the bullet then to wait for it to kill you they say.

“Alright, daughter. You told me you have the report from fixing up your youngest brother?” he asked lightly, also warning his children of what was going to come.

“Yeah, Pops. Agatha and Tabitha are monitoring him now, while I am talking with y’all.” She smiled at everyone in the room, calming them lightly with knowing that Ace was in capable hands.

Agatha was a burn specialist but she was Ariana’s go to whenever she had to leave the infirmary, and Tabitha was her twin sister. A little more playful and immature, but gifted with the art of stitches and first aid.

Ace would be okay for the time that Ariana is here, and that was all that mattered really. Well that and finding out what exactly happened to Ace aboard that vessel.

“What’s wrong with him?” Haruta asked eagerly, her small body bouncing lightly, not necessarily from excitement but from anxiety.

“Well that would be a good question, but at this point it seems to be more like what isn’t wrong with him, really.” Ariana spoke softly and Edward focused all his attention on her, disregarding everything but what she was saying.

“Would you stop being so cryptic! What the hell happened to him over there?!!”

Surprisingly it wasn’t Marco that yelled out, but Izou. He stood from his seat and was quite the sight, especially with the fact that he looked nothing like he usually did.

Edward took a moment to take in the appearance, having never seen his fashion obsessed son like this before.

His hair was down, pulled together over his left shoulder and tied loosely with a ribbon. His face was pale but not because of the usual make up he wore, hell it didn’t look like he was wearing any make up at all. He wasn’t wearing his usual kimono either, not even one of his more colorful, he wasn’t even wearing a kimono! Instead he was wearing a dull grey yukata. Despite his dull colors, his eyes were alight with fury and that seemed to be the only thing that mattered.

Ariana wasn’t a woman to take such things lying down and in turn glared at the unusual looking Izou, which served to be a well-received message. Izou sat down immediately, but still stared at Ariana like she burned his favorite kimono.

“I was getting to that.” She scathed harshly and Edward worried for a flash that he’d have to play peacekeeper again, but Ariana just cleared her throat and started again.

“As all of you are aware, we had some issues getting to Ace to heal his injuries due to him being on fire and not letting any of us close. Thank you, Marco, for calming him down so we could help him.” She nodded towards the phoenix to Edward’s right side, who responded by nodding his head in return.

“After that we kicked you all out, due to some not so obvious reasons. We only had two really. One, we had no idea how bad the damage was so we didn’t know if we would need to operate or not so we tried our best to keep the area as sanitary as possible. Two, we didn’t want anyone to overreact to wounds that were mostly superficial then go out and do something stupid. So I would like you all to know, we weren’t doing it to be assholes.”

She stared down at Izou, Haruta, and Vista at that, all who were adamant at not being kicked out last night. Surprisingly Marco was the easiest to get to leave the room, but then he camped out by the door all night.

Edward looked to his eldest for a moment. Dark circles covered his eyes and they were drooping more than usual. Did he even get any sleep?

“Now to the part that I am not looking forward to at all. I have here,” she held up a clipboard with a thick stack of papers, “the complete injury list and recommended recovery for one Portgas D. Ace.”

Silence wrapped the room up in an abrasive cocoon. No one wanted to speak, all eyes locked on the documents in Ariana’s hand.

Let it be known that she was a good nurse, but tended more toward the dramatics like her brother often did when catching victims.

He loved his children.

“Continue, child.” He spoke softly, locking eyes with her dark brown irises. Hopefully she got the picture that her predilections were getting a little on people’s nerves.

Little brat had the nerve to smirk.

“It’s not good news. The list of injuries was enough to make Tabitha cry, though she’s been in a mood lately so that’s not special.” And still she was stalling. She was enjoying this too much.

Edward gave her a stern look and she ducked her head shyly.

“From the top of the list to the bottom then.” She took a deep breath then stared firmly at her clipboard, not looking up at all as she started to speak.

“He has a rather serious bruise on his face, almost fractured the cheekbone, my guess was a kick to the cheek. Every single one of his fingers were broken, popped from the back of the knuckle in towards the palms. Both of his forearms were completely shattered, some lacerations in the form of a boot print were found on his skin.

His right ankle was broken to pieces, we had to go in and realign them all to their proper place just so it would heal properly. His left ankle was a little better off, no surgery required but we did have to cast it.

His back was completely torn apart. Slashes and cuts were everywhere. We had to stitch up almost nine total, and the rest we wrapped extra tight. There was also a plethora of burns covering his chest, there were signs of some on his back at some point, but most of the burned skin was torn away from whatever cut him up.”

She swallowed heavily, breaking her practically monotonous voice, before she looked up to lock eyes with Edward, speaking softly to the room.

“Ace’s tattoo was just about ruined. When his back heals up there will be layers of scars crossing through it, making the image almost undiscernible. We recommend that a month after they close up that the Artist re-inks it, so it can heal with the rest of his body.”

Edward nodded softly, closing his eyes lightly as he recalled the image of his son’s red red back. It was like the marines were trying to erase his mark from his own son.

He clenched a fist tightly and wished again that the marines were not all dead so he could kill them again and make them suffer as his son had suffered.

“There were various other bruises scattered along his arms, legs, shoulders, and neck. A few shoe prints were visible so he was likely either kicked or stepped on. Along with that he has two broken ribs on his right side, and four on his left, three on his right were just bruised and only one on his left.

Also there were two bullet wounds in his torso; rough around the edges, most likely made from seastone bullets. The holes also show signs of being reopened more than once, as if someone stuck a thumb in them.”

Edward didn’t know what to say to that. To any of it. Didn’t know how he was supposed to respond to his son being so brutalized, or whatever the estimated recovery will be. It was something he knew was going to take him a while to process.

Then his thinking was interrupted by a sort of loud caw, sounding similar to that of a horn only a bit more higher pitched. His head immediately turned to his right, all his other children joining in as they looked at a now phoenix Marco.

Well that’s less surprising than he thought it would be. His eldest was too angry to hold back the anger of the phoenix. It was refreshing to see him in all his blue fire glory, but not when they were in the middle of a meeting.

Marco proceeded to let out another loud sound, one the whole crew easily recognized as his angry sound, and spread his tail feathers. The phoenix was very similar to a peacock in that aspect. Angry equals fluffing up and annoying horn sounds.

“Calm down, idiot. We still need to hear about his proposed recovery.”

Edward was thankful for Thatch for many things, but the most important was his ability to say just the right thing to get Marco’s head back on right.

Though it usually came with the price of Marco pecking his head at some point or another; this time he settled for glaring at his chef brother with heated blue eyes.

Well, they’ll fight it out later. Edward needed to hear the recovery details; it was imperative in deciding where to sail next to keep out of waters that may attract people that would take advantage of the worried state of the Whitebeard Pirates.

“The injuries that are going to need the longest recovery time are his ankles and his fingers, even if his devil fruit does speed up the process. The minimum will be around two months total, maximum is about six months to a year. All depending on how his devil fruit plays into his healing processes. I‘ll ask him when he wakes up.”

Edward nodded slightly, that means they should stick close to paradise or even journey to one of the other seas. Maybe over to East Blue? Haven’t been there in a while, and surely his children wouldn’t mind a vacation.

“Is that all you have to report, daughter?” he asked finally, knowing his eldest wanted to be by Ace’s side when he woke. It’d be best to send him over to the infirmary as swiftly as possible.

Fortunately when he glanced over to his son he was actually sitting there and not in his phoenix form trying to glare Thatch to death.

Apparently the glance was enough for Ariana to get the picture and she cleared her throat again to get everyone’s attention. She probably had a few more things to say.

“His recovery time may be up in the air at the moment, but the fact remains that he is going to have a difficult time of it, especially adding on his lack of sight to the whole predicament. I recommend that he have limited visits for the next week, maybe two depending on his health. That means no sneaking in to visit, no rough housing, no dangerous behavior near him, and be careful if you touch him. Just because an area is not covered in gauze does not mean it isn’t sore. Got it?”

She shifted her eyes around the room, making sure to lock gazes with everyone, just so they understood how serious she was about her rules. Every single person nodded their head seriously. Good. Happy nurse, happy life.

“Alright, thank you, daughter. Take Marco with you on your way back to the infirmary. He ain’t gonna be much use moping around here. The rest of you, we need to have a quick chat about your younger brother’s new found ailment.”

Edward nodded to Ariana, who smiled before strutting over to pluck Marco’s arm from its perch on the large round table. Marco looked like he wanted to eat her intestines for breakfast but stood anyway to follow.

He was worried about his eldest and youngest, but he needed to make sure at least these fourteen knew how NOT to handle Ace when he did wake up.

Slowly he brought his sons and daughter’s attention to him and started to talk quietly. Out of the corner of his eyes he watched as Ariana started to whisper quickly to Marco. Her mouth moving fast and her hands gesturing widely.

He’ll find out what his head nurse was telling his first division commander later. He had other brats to watch.

**-tired of these yet? I am-**

“I need to talk to you about something before we go in to the infirmary.”

Hearing that from the nurse in charge of Ace’s recovery made Marco hesitate to walk out of the meeting room. Was Ariana going to tell him something else that is wrong with Ace? What else could there be that she didn’t say in the report? That she didn’t tell Pops?

“What, yoi?”

“It’s-well I didn’t think Ace would want me to tell anyone. And well, you were the one who got to him first, so I figured you already knew-” it was obvious to Marco that she was nervous, especially since she wasn’t one to stutter.

“Wait, already know what?”

He couldn’t think of anything that he would know about that his siblings didn’t. Hell, Haruta was the one who got the marine to squeal in front of the family, so anything he heard they heard to.

Marco wracked his brain, trying to think of something he knew that his siblings didn’t. There wasn’t really a time that he was on the deck of the marine vessel without one of his sibling there too. Besides Thatch was the first one on the deck in the first place, so even though Marco was the first to actually see Ace didn’t mean that-

“You mean-”

“So you did see.” She spoke softly, shutting the door to the meeting room softly behind her.

Marco had completely forgotten about it; the thing that had pissed him off the most when he had finally gotten to Ace. The thing that crushed his heart because it caused the fire wielder to be afraid of him.

He paused in the middle of the hallway, staring at the equally unmoving form of Ariana standing not too far ahead of him. He really didn’t know what to think, and for the first time since this whole issue started the phoenix inside was silent.

“I-I was the only one who saw, really.” Ariana broke the silence uneasily and Marco moved his gaze to her own eyes, he watched as she struggled through what to say.

“I had to pull off his shorts, they were-they were bloody and ripped and not fit to wear. I was only going to change them, put him in a smock or something. I didn’t-I didn’t think something like that could have happened to him.”

Marco had zoned out during her explanation, scenes of what he saw when he rescued Ace were flashing through his mind. But he focused on that key phrase ‘happened to him.’

Suddenly the phoenix was cooing once more and Marco was a flurry of emotions. He quickly moved to where she was, grabbed her shoulders and looked into her eyes, scanning for something, some sign that it wasn’t what he thought it was.

The way she said it implied the worst. That couldn’t happen. Not to Ace, not to the vibrant sun he was, that wasn’t fair. The teen had to go through so much already, so much pain, doubt, scrutiny, all these things plus something like that? No. He refused. There was no way, it wasn’t true. Nothing happened, it was just the injuries. That’s it. He was just injured, nothing horrible, nothing that could ruin the purity Marco still saw in those wide smiles and hazy eyes.

“What happened?”

He barely recognized his own voice, even if he felt the vibrations through his throat. His mind was on a different plane than the rest of his body, it was a disconnect it seems.

“Not what you are thinking, I believe. I sent Tabitha and Agatha out and put up the confidential sign up so I was the only one there while I examined the white substance.”

Marco nodded slightly and urged her with his eyes to continue. He didn’t think he could live with the pain on not knowing exactly what happened to Ace.

“I cleaned it up, and because of the same thoughts you are thinking of, I decided to do a full check, though I was hesitant to do so with Ace in such a deep sleep. But his health was more important than his dignity so I did the exam anyway.

The substance was dried, but I can confirm that it was sperm, most likely from the captain I would assume. Cannot say for sure though. But it was only on his butt cheeks, some trailed down his inner thigh, but it was all on the external part of his ass area.

Just in case, I checked his asshole, for the lack of a better term, for any signs of trauma, and while it was slightly swollen, there was no damage to the interior. So I can tell you with one hundred percent certainty that Ace was not raped. Assaulted, yes, raped, no.”

Marco could feel his phoenix start to calm down, his own thoughts no longer racing with images of the possible horrors Ace could have experienced. It was good that he was not raped.

“Who else knows about this, yoi?”

Ariana shifted a little at this before she started heading towards the infirmary once more, motioning Marco idly to follow.

“No one. I didn’t even include it in the report. You, me, and Ace are the only ones who know. I didn’t think it was anyone else’s business.” She spoke lightly but clutched the clipboard tighter to her chest as she walked with a strange single mindedness.

“Thank you.”

The nurse looked back to him and he could see the shock clearly written across her face, obviously she wasn’t expecting that from him.

“Think nothing of it…” she paused and glanced at him again only this time with curiosity shining in her dark brown irises. This was going to be something he didn’t want to hear.

“Did you know that Ace is blind?” Yep, something he didn’t want to hear.

Marco just sighed as he tilted his head back to stare blankly at the ceiling. The whole crew knew, no doubt the commanders were filling Vista in; the only ones who didn’t know were the nurses at this point.

“Yes I did, yoi.”

Ariana stopped again, but Marco didn’t. He’d answer her questions but he wasn’t going to waste precious time he could be spending by Ace’s side to do so.

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

The first division commander glanced back at the head nurse with a gaze that spoke all the words he felt he needed to. But just in case, he said them out loud as well.

“It wasn’t my place. But the whole family knows now, yoi. They needed to know how horrible this experience was for him.” He didn’t need to specify the ‘him’, they both knew who he was talking about and Ariana nodded in response.

“Did they suffer, Marco?”

Said man smiled a smile very similar to that of a cat that caught the canary. There were light clicks of the heels Ariana wore and suddenly he was encased in a hug by the smaller woman.

“Good.”

She let go just as quickly as she latched on, turning and started walking towards the infirmary once more. Marco shook his head and chalked it up to his sister’s crazy protective instincts. The woman was practically a mama bear when it came to her family.

The rest of the walk was made in silence, but that was fine with both parties, they both had things they needed to think about. Ariana deciding how to go about Ace’s physical therapy and Marco contemplating the same teen’s reaction to finding out that the phoenix told everyone of his blindness.

It seemed like they reached the door to the infirmary quite a deal faster than they would have normally, but neither paid attention to that. Marco was entirely focused on seeing Ace again, without all the blood that was there last night.

The head nurse opened the door slowly and quietly, trying very hard not to disturb her patient. It was rather unnecessary though. When the door was fully opened Marco was greeted to the sight of Ace sitting up in bed, his eyes tightly shut as he chatted with Tabitha about various pranks that have been pulled on the Moby Dick’s deck.

“-and Jozu didn’t even know what was going on!! He was completely clueless that the others were using him as a makeshift disco ball!!”

Marco smiled at the younger woman’s enthusiastic replaying of an event few on the Moby Dick could forget. Whether they were there or were told the story, everyone knew about it and it was a long standing joke between the family members.

Ariana knocked lightly on the door, attracting Tabitha’s gaze as well as the attention of Agatha who was nearby medicating her burn wounds from last night. Ace’s head shot up as well, his lazy fire stretching along the floor to caress the head nurse’s feet.

He was almost nervous of what would happen when the fire would recognize him to Ace. Marco had no idea how the teen would react to anything, if he even remembered everything.

But as soon as the fire made a single tap of his person Ace’s head was turned toward him and a large smile lit up his face. He looked so beautiful.

Marco didn’t stop to think things through, didn’t hesitate to think about the results of his actions, all he knew was that he needed to touch that beautiful man sitting on the infirmary bed all wrapped up in gauze.

The phoenix pushed past Ariana, who was standing in the doorway slightly dumbstruck, and made his way to the teen in the bed.

Marco’s feathers flared out slightly and he was sort of aware of Ariana grabbing Agatha and Tabitha and making her way out the door with them in tow. Good. More privacy to have with Ace, who still looked entirely too tired to be awake.

A quick talk never hurt anyone though.

As soon as Marco was close enough to touch Ace he wrapped his arms around the teen carefully and hugged him like his life depended on it. He knew in his head that he was going to be okay, hell he’s renowned as ‘Fire Fist’ Ace for a reason, but some part of his mind kept whispering that he’d never wake up.

That part of his mind needed a stiff drink and a good round of chatting with Pops.

“M-Marco.” Ace stuttered out and the mentioned man frowned. Ace shouldn’t stutter, that didn’t fit him, he needed to be crazy and obnoxious and loud. Not okay.

Tentative arms came around his shoulders and Marco smiled before burying his face into Ace’s hair, inhaling the scent of fire and ash and enjoying the closeness of the younger. He would have gotten closer but suddenly the flame using teen hissed.

Oh right. Injuries, infirmary, asshole marines.

Marco let go of the other and reined his feathers back into his body. Didn’t need to be getting Ace all riled up when it was obvious that he needed sleep.

“It’s alright, Ace. You are all patched up, yoi. And you should really be getting some more sleep.” He frowned and cautiously raised a hand to tuck a loose black bang behind the teen’s ear.

The light red that dusted freckled cheeks made his inner phoenix want to preen and strut around, just a bit. It was fairly obvious at this point that Ace felt something towards him other than normal family emotions. And he so badly wanted to act on those emotions, wanted to kiss the other, touch him, hold him. But Ace wasn’t in any position for any of those things, and Marco did have patience, he could wait.

Though he couldn’t wait to see the fire wielder’s eyes. The last time had been in the middle of a stressful situation so he couldn’t properly appreciate the view, he’d rather like to do it now.

“Can you open your eyes, Ace?”

The other frowned and for a brief moment Marco felt a shred of worry that something had happened to make the Ace trust him less. Would he even let him see those beautiful eyes again?

But the moment of weakness was easily put away when Ace opened his eyes slowly. They were wide open for a second and Marco took in all that he could before the teen started blinking quickly, no doubt trying to get back to actually blinking and not just keeping his eyes closed.

A yawn escaped from the teen’s slightly pale lips and Marco let out an inaudible sigh. He was hoping to have some more time to spend with the younger, but if he was tired there was no way he’d keep him awake just to chat.

“You should sleep some, it’ll help with your recovery, yoi.” The phoenix spoke softly and with an equally soft touch, pushed Ace down to where he was laying down, blankly gazing at the ceiling.

Careful to not disturb the wounds on the other, Marco brought the blanket from its place on Ace’s waist up to his shoulders, to keep the teen covered from other’s sight. He knew Ace wouldn’t be cold due to his fire still floating around, but he was only covered by a smock underneath the sheets. There was no reason for anyone else to see the flame teen in such a state of undress.

Marco moved his view back to Ace’s face and frowned to see him still staring at the ceiling, his blinking slowing back to the normal pace.

“Go to sleep, I’ll stay here until you are.” Hopefully that would make the other feel better, especially since the last time he was present he was able to stop the horrid nightmares the other was having.

When Ace still didn’t respond, the blonde took some rather personal space jumps and reached down to grab ahold of the teen’s left hand. Holding it lightly and trying rather hard not to aggravate the broken bones there, he released a few of his feathers and watched as Ace matched the blue flames with his own.

It seemed like the hand holding did the trick too. Ace turned his head slowly until his hazy eyes were locked upon Marco’s person, despite the fact that they slowly moved every now and then due to the inability to focus them.

He was about to tell the teen to get some sleep again when the other beat him to the punch and opened his mouth to speak.

“Thank you.”

Marco almost didn’t hear the words they were said so light. But his phoenix wouldn’t let him miss something like that. No he heard the words and he was shocked by them.

“For what, yoi?”

He really had no idea. What on earth could he have done to cause the normally obstinate teen to thank him? He couldn’t think of a single thing. Not one.

Ace laughed at the words, not a full blown laugh that he was prone to do when with the others on deck, but a soft sort of indulgent laugh. For some reason Marco got the feeling that the other was laughing at him.

“For saving me.” Marco paused his thoughts and just looked at Ace. His eyes were moist and he was wearing a look of happiness.

Happy was a good look for the teen.

“For getting me off that ship. Rescuing me from-from that torture. And-and for helping in releasing me from my nightmares, and keeping them away. Thank you.”

For the first time in many many years, Marco could feel his cheeks heat up in a blush. It was the first time he was glad for Ace’s blindness. Wouldn’t do for the younger to see the effect those words had on the phoenix. Nope. Wouldn’t do at all.

“You don’t have to thank me, yoi. I am glad to have done it.”

Ace smiled brightly. Not a small happy smile, or a large grin, but a smile that fit somewhere in between the others. Really the brat needed to sleep now, otherwise Marco was sure he’d have a permanent blush on his cheeks, and that would not be good for anyone.

“Now go to sleep. You need to rest, yoi.”

The black haired youth closed his eyes, smile still on his face and soon his breath evened out and Marco was pretty positive he was asleep.

He let go of Ace’s hand and gently placed it back on the bed. He stood to leave, the gods knew he had a shit ton of paper work to do, but then he looked back onto Ace’s sleeping face.

Marco couldn’t resist and leaned over the prone form, placing his forehead on the other’s he closed his eyes and breathed out softly.

“I think I am falling in love with you.”

The words fell from his lips and not a single one of them felt wrong. Lightly he brushed his lips against Ace’s, this kiss nothing like the accidental one from when Ace got his tattoo.

It was just a quick touch of the lips, and it made Marco smile widely as he straightened back up. Now all he had to do was work on confessing when the teen was awake. Oh well.

He turned easily and walked out the door, nodding to the nurses who were just milling around, waiting to get their infirmary back.

They all smiled at him as he walked with a happy step, thinking about how he looked a lot better when he was cheerful instead of perpetually bored.

Unfortunately for the generally brilliant phoenix, he did not see nor notice the fact that Ace was not asleep and now lay in bed with a bright red face thinking about what just happened and what he was going to do about it.

**-this is the last one…I promise-**

Ace was having a wonderful dream, full of sensations and emotions and just general goodness and all that rot. They no doubt stemmed from the light kiss of Marco’s but Ace tried not to look too far into a good thing. He was just glad they weren’t those horrid nightmares.

But all good things come to an end and soon Ace was just lying awake with his eyes still closed and contemplating life. Not something he normally did but anything to keep from showing his eyes to his family any earlier than he had to.

His bangs were cut really short now, if he opened his eyes for anything then they would see and they would know. He didn’t want them to know, not yet anyway. He needed to get used to the idea of everyone knowing, needed time to accept it after hiding it for so long.

Marco kissed him.

Ace could feel his cheeks start to heat and it had nothing to do with the fire that was currently bubbling beneath his skin. Marco made him feel so many things he’d never get the chance to experience.

The other man made him feel giddy, and happy, and that maybe living could be a wanted experience and not an obligation to his younger brother’s wants.

Marco made him want to live.

It wasn’t something he was used to feeling. It was almost always his brother’s face that would keep him from thinking suicidal thoughts, but now he didn’t even bother thinking them. If he was dead then he couldn’t be near Marco. He didn’t want that. He wanted to be near the other always.

But what to do about that kiss?

Ace doesn’t know what he feels about Marco, only that he enjoys the other’s company and he makes him want to live. Was that love? Was that how that worked?

In that case did he love Luffy? His brother made him want to stick around, but it wasn’t quite the same feeling as he got around Marco. What was love anyway? He had no experience, not even with crushes, though Makino sure was nice.

Did he have a crush on the barmaid when he was young? Was that what it felt like to love someone? Cause Ace was pretty positive that the emotions he felt for the first division commander was a lot more intense than what he felt when Makino came to visit.

He needed to talk to someone. Someone who knew what love felt like, who would know if what Ace felt for Marco was really love.

He needed to talk to Izou.

Good that was settled. Now all he needed to do was to get out of this blasted bed, away from the harpies, and out of this almost jail cell and all would be grand.

Ace was about to start up his plan of escape when he heard the door open quietly, almost as if the person was sneaking in. He needed to feign sleep a little longer then; just till whoever it is leaves. Good. Good plan, Sabo was crazy when he said his plans weren’t well thought out.

The other person sat quietly next to his bed and suddenly Ace was pretty sure it was Marco. Who else would make a beeline for his bed after sneaking in?

So without a thought, without even thinking it could be someone not Marco, Ace opened his eyes and moved his head to where he was gazing at Marco’s face. Though he still wasn’t sure what he was going to say to the elder.

The other spoke before Ace could get his thoughts together and the voice made him freeze.

“Well now I know why you kept them hidden.”

Holy fuck.

Pops saw his eyes. Oh god. He knows. He knows Ace is blind, knows he’s broken, a horrid liability on a pirate ship. He was going to kick him off the ship. Oh god. Ace was going to be alone again. He just got his family!! This wasn’t fair!

He started to sweat and he could feel his body trembling, his eyes slamming shut and his brain chanting over and over that it’s just a dream. Pops didn’t see his ugly eyes, he didn’t. He’d wake up and it’d all be in his imagination.

Suddenly a pressure was on Ace’s head and the teen flinched back, terrified of what was going to happen now that Pops knew. Was he even allowed to call him Pops anymore? Was Ace still his son?

“Do not look so afraid, my son. Marco already told us of your…circumstance. Gurarara.” The old man laughed lightly and his tone calmed him and his furious fire down quite a bit.

Then he fully processed the words.

“Marco did what?!!”

**TBC**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aren’t I awesome with all these cliffhangers?!!  
> I hope the next chapter won’t take too long, but finals start in early May so be prepared for that~ also a few ending notes~  
> 1: the new cover image is something I commissioned from the lovely Sheilkuroi (which is a scene that will one day be in OBE XD )  
> 2: I have a poll up on my profile(on fanfiction Lifeless Heartless)~ I’d love you forever if you dropped in to vote!!  
> 3:THIS IS SUPER IMPORTANT!! PLEASE DON’T SKIP!!! I am going to have another short scenes chapter coming up (probs after this arc) so if there is a specific scene you want please tell me!! Review or PM all are appreciated (nothing too out of this world please…and something that would be in OBE)   
> Again I will answer any questions and concerns~   
> Thanks y’all!! See ya next time~


	14. Once Upon a Youth (part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Been a looong while hasn’t it?? Sorry about that : )   
> Anyway  
> Unfortunately this isn’t a REAL chapter…kind of a side story I was planning to release on Luffy’s birthday, but I never really got around to that.  
> So the reason I’m posting this now is to offer my apologies.   
> I’ve been having a really tough time these past few months. Between depression, school, and other such difficulties I haven’t really been in the mood to write, not to mention I was fandom hopping my little heart out (stayed for a long time in Bagginshield so)   
> Also this chapter is to announce something rather important…I’m kind of going on hiatus until next August? My darling beta, Setsu, is living the life and studying abroad in Japan currently, and I sort of refuse to publish this without her. We both agreed before she left that it would go on break until she came back, hence the hiatus until August (she’ll be back on the first of the month)   
> I will be writing in the meantime though, I just won’t be posting the chapters, so when she gets back I could start an actual updates schedule (NEVER HAD ONE OF THOSE BEFORE!!) and I will be participating in this year’s Big Bang so there is that too~   
> Sorry so much my darlings~ never meant to make you wait this long~ please enjoy the little Side Story~

**SET SAIL!**

“Dadan!! Get out here!!”

Ace jerked up, completely startled by the sound of his grandfather yelling. He wasn’t due any time soon, why the hell was he here?

The young freckled child started blinking furiously, trying to get the blurs out of his eyes, the blurs half from sleep and half from his deteriorating vision. It was really annoying, each week it felt like his sight was getting worse and worse.

He hadn’t told the bandits or the old man yet. Didn’t even know if he was going to tell them at all, honestly. It was none of their damn business, and it’s not like they cared anyway. Maybe he should tell Sabo though. He’d probably want to know…eh, he’ll tell him eventually, not like he was going blind or anything.

“G-Garp!! You have seriously got to give me a break already!! That damn Ace is ten years old now!”

Hmph, sounds like same old same old. The bandits keep trying to pawn him back off to the old man, and Ace can’t help but wonder if one day he’ll actually take him.

Heh, fat chance.

“We can’t handle the kid any longer, all right?!! You’ve got to take him off our hands!!” Fucking Dogra. Ace was barely around the hideout in the first place, and without him the damn bandits probably wouldn’t be eating every night. What wankers.

Idly he wondered what the hell the old man was doing here anyway. The geezer never came to see him, the last time he remembered a visit was when he was five, a few weeks before he met Sabo for the first time.

Damn had it really been five years already?

“You’re dumping another one on us?!! And he’s your grandson?!!”

Ace’s head shot right up at that. Another kid?! Another fucking grandson?!! What the hell?!!

No way in hell. Ace was not going to share any part of his life with some dumbass brat who wouldn’t know hardship if it bit him in the ass. Screw that noise.

“Whaaaaat?! The heck are you doing with that little kid?!!”

And he was a little kid. That’s just great. The world just loves to make his life harder, all parts of it. Fuck.

Though he could only see blurry outlines of the various trees, Ace just knew right where to jump to get a glimpse of the little boy he’ll be expected to cohabitate with.

In the back of his mind he was still listening to Dadan make actual logical arguments only to be smacked down by the old man’s sheer stubbornness.

“Well then, how about I put it like this? You spend your lives in the slammer, or you raise the kid! You know damn well how many crimes of yours I’m turning a blind eye to!!”

The kid was small. He could definitely make that out, smaller than both him and Sabo. He was wearing this large yellow thing on his head, looked mostly like a blob, probably a hat, with a little red in it, maybe a ribbon or something?

“Well, sure, we don’t want to go to jail…but that Ace kid gives us so much trouble, I tell you…”

The rest of him was a mix of dark tanned skin and light and dark blues, probably his clothes if he tried to guess. And it seemed like on his feet were light yellow blobs, most likely sandals.

Okay maybe he should tell someone about his disappearing eyesight, can’t even see what this new nuisance looks like.

“Sometimes I wonder whether jail wouldn’t be an easier option! And now your grandson on top of that?!”

Ace was still ignoring the conversation between the elderly when he slid down from the top of the tree, landing on his catch of the day and crossing his legs and arms, his trusty pipe held tightly in his hand.

This little brat was going to screw over the give and take relationship he had built up with the bandits, no doubt about that. Hell he didn’t even look all that useful.

Just another person to hate his existence.

“I don’t doubt this one’s just as much of a monster as Ace ever was!!”

Of course that was the time Ace actually started paying attention to what the two older people were yelling about.

That’s right. He was a monster. He didn’t deserve the life he had, he didn’t deserve the things he was granted. That’s why he fought, that’s why he took, that’s why he wasn’t going to let this stupid little brat interrupt his life.

Without thinking too much of the consequences, Ace collected the saliva in his mouth, aimed, and spat just below the yellow blob-hat, hopefully hitting the nuisance’s face.

“Ungh!!”

Bull’s eye.

 “Gahhh!!! Spit!!! That’s gross!!”

Ace tried not to squint his eyes too much as we watched a small tanned blob reach up to the blob that the freckled kid was aiming for. Heh, looks like he had pretty good instincts.

“Oi!! Who the heck are you?!!”

Fuck. The little brat had an attitude too. Great, just freaking great. That was exactly what he needed in this forsaken place, an imp with an attitude.

“Ah…Ace!”

Of course the old man acted like nothing is going on, like nothing is wrong. The geezer had a habit of pretending everything was fine and dandy.

“Ahhh!! Ace!!! You’re back, are you?!” Duh. Ace had been back, he just didn’t want to have to deal with their complaining. A nap was so much better than listening to the old lady nag.

He scowled as the tanned blob suddenly turned towards him; the little brats face was a complete blur. Ace couldn’t even make out an expression, but judging by his earlier voice it probably wasn’t a very pleasant one.

Of course the geezer blob, and it had to be the geezer, no one else wore ridiculous suits, came over and smacked the kid across the head. Well at least that didn’t seem to be different between him and the actual grandson. No mercy.

“That kid is Ace. He’s three years older than you. You’re going to be living with these people from now on, so you’d better try getting along!”

Fuck that. Ace wasn’t getting along with anyone. The only one he needed was Sabo. That was it.

“Ace!?”

God his voice was high and squeaky. Annoying.

“And that’s a fact, is it?!!!” The bandits seemed to only ever have a backbone when the geezer’s back was turned. Pathetic excuses for criminals.

Ace continued to glower in the direction of the small tanned blob, hoping to get across the feeling that he wasn’t going to be anywhere near nice to the kid.

“….What was that?”

The geezer had such a temper when it came to the bandits, but he’ll leave Ace and his own grandson in their care. He never thought much about it, but the old man was a horrible caretaker, leaving his wards in the care of criminals. Some marine.

“…We’ll be happy to have him!!!” Spineless bastards.

Ace ignored all of them, turning away from his glaring to pick up the giant animal he had gotten for tonight’s dinner. He may not have known exactly what it was, due to his horrid eyesight, but meat was meat and he really didn’t care.

He was walking it into the hideout, ready for dinner despite the early hour. Naps tended to make him hungrier than normal, as odd as that was to believe. Sabo always complained that they had to do twice the hunting after Ace took a nap.

Ace carried the heavy thing into the house, leaving it in the middle of the main room for someone else to clean and cook it. He caught it; the bandits can take care of actually making it edible.

The freckled kid didn’t even bother saying goodbye to the old man. He’d be back eventually to check on his grandson so why bother saying it? He went straight to his room and settled down for another nap, the bandits would probably take a while with the animal anyway, it was huge.

Ace woke up not too long later, judging by the amount of sun in his room, and made his way out to the common area. He already could smell the aroma of cooked meat. Good. He was starving.

He noticed idly that there were a lot of green and tan blobs sitting around the fire pit, all on ugly pink seat pillows. Unfortunately that little brat was sitting only a single pillow away from Ace’s normal spot.

Obviously he could kick one of the other bandits out of their seat and steal theirs to be further away from the freaking kid, but he wasn’t about to let the encroacher ruin his daily routine. Ace would just have to deal with it. That was annoying.

He sat down in a huff, glad to see the meat that was waiting for him, and see it clearly; he was too hungry to demand it like normal. Looks like the hag picked up on his sour mood. Good for her.

“I hate mountain bandits!!”

Ace glance over at the kid, surprised that a few more details were visible to him, and noticed he had a rather petulant expression. And a…scar underneath his eye? It looked like a scar but Ace couldn’t say for sure due to the blurriness that was still there.

It also looked like the yellow blur on his head was a hat, one made of straw with a red ribbon around it. For some reason it just made Ace angry. He had no idea why, he generally didn’t mind hats…

“Shut it brat, we’re already tired with the likes of you!” Well at least someone felt the same as he did about the little kid.

Ace took a huge bite out of the cooked meat, not really savoring the taste, but enjoying the feeling of a soon to be full belly.

“If you don’t like it here, get out and starve to death!!”

Well now there’s an idea. Lock the kid out and leave him to the whims of the forest, it’d surely kill before too long.

Another glance and he could make out a red blur sticking out of the little brat’s mouth. Was he sticking his tongue out at Dadan? What a brat; not that Ace hadn’t done the same thing, but that’s completely different.

“Calm down, boss.”

Magra had to have been his favorite bandit, even tempered, knew when to stay out of his way, and kept Dadan on a leash of some sort. He wasn’t too bad but his resemblance to a rooster really made Ace want to punch his lights out.

Feeling the hunger pawing at his belly, Ace started to truly ignore the others in the small communal room, choosing instead to start eating his food with gusto.

“This is too little. I want that meat too.”

Ace didn’t even have to look up to know that the little kid was talking about his current meal, and his tearing apart of the meat that HE brought back. It was his meat. The brat couldn’t have any.

“This meat is from a buffalo Ace captured!! He gives us some and that goes on our plates. Mountain bandits aren’t in shape recently…”

Dadan never could keep to one subject in a sentence. She was going to confuse the hell out of the kid, referring to Ace catching the food cause the bandits weren’t really good at it anymore…whatever. It wasn’t any of his business anyway.

“You will have a lot of work tomorrow!! You will clean, do the laundry, polish our shoes and weapons! As well as rob, steal, swindle, and murder people!”

That was a familiar thing to hear. Ace was almost positive it was the same speech the fat bandit gave to him when he was old enough to start actually help. Of course he wasn’t going to have any of it and quickly taught the bandits where they could stuff it.

“And you must not tell Garp what you are doing here!”

Yep. That was the same exact speech, but if the old geezer continued his normal schedule of visits then it wouldn’t matter anyway. The kid would be dead long before the old man made his way back for a visit.

Ace just kept tearing through his food though, unperturbed by the rather inhumane speech Dadan was giving to the new resident. He was hungry. He cared little for the brat, cared more about his stomach than anything else.

“A bowl of rice and a cup of water a day. That is all you can have…”

“Anything else you have to get, or grow up on your own!!”

Ace was kind of looking forward to the crying and complaining the little brat was going to do at the sound of the Dadan Family rules. It would be humorous.

“Okay!”

That was not at all what Ace thought the kid was going to say…what kind of brat agrees to only have a bowl of rice a day?! It’s not even like the kid could hunt or anything, too small and skinny for that…how on earth was he going to eat?

“You agree? You were supposed to cry!” At least Dadan seemed to be on the same page. Seriously, there was no protein in rice, and Sabo said that was what kept Ace full all the time…there was something seriously wrong with this little red blob…

“My grandpa abandoned me in the jungle once before.”

Well that wasn’t much of a surprise. Of course the fucking old guy was crazy when it came to his own grandson too. Fuck. All the noise is making him not hungry anymore…and he only ate half of what he usually did.

“I can eat worms, frogs, snakes, and mushrooms as long as I want!”

Okay. That’s enough. The kid is totally useless and not worth the time and effort it was taking him to half focus on what was going on around him.

Ace let out an inaudible sigh and finished up the piece of meat he had in his hand.

Forget this shit. Sabo was probably already waiting for him to come back, and like hell he was going to risk hanging out around this damn kid anymore.

Idiot is contagious after all.

The freckled kid just stood and left. He didn’t bother telling Dadan where he was going, didn’t mention to anyone that he was leaving, he just left. After all, an unwanted existence didn’t need to speak at all, right?

He felt so much better as he left the threshold of the bandit’s hideout. The outdoors, the forest, always gave him a bit of peace, more so than he’d ever felt before. And that was reason enough to enjoy it on his jaunt to meet up with Sabo.

Unfortunately, Ace barely had time to take a deep soothing breath of mountain air before he noticed the sound of footsteps behind him.

A kneejerk reaction made the freckled youth turn around, despite knowing he wouldn’t be able to see the threat if there was one.

Luckily, or not in this case, the red and yellow blur gave it away. The damned kid was following him…

“Hey!!! I am Luffy!!”

Well it was good to put an annoying name to the annoying presence at the very least…but damn was the kid loud, he’d scare away all the good food if he continued on as he was.

“I am not angry about you spitting on me anymore!”

Why the fuck not? Who wasn’t angry about something so disrespectful? Grown men had tried to take him on for something less…hell he’d taken on grown men for less.

This kid was really messed up in the head.

“…” Ace had no idea what to say. Hell he didn’t have to say anything he should just walk away. But another glance at the slightly bouncing blur just ticked him off.

Without really thinking through his actions he kicked the tree next to him, idly listening to the kid while he did.

“It’s not something to get angry about!! Let’s be friends! Where are you going?”

Everything about the brat was annoying, his voice, his presence, his smallness, his cheerfulness, his lack of common sense, his stupid offer of stupid friendship.

Ace swung his foot out and started the tree rolling right for the red and yellow blob, delighting in the slight “what” and following scream of the smaller kid.

He didn’t stick around to watch the freak of nature get squished, Ace just twirled his pipe in his hands and walked off, hoping to make it to the bridge before he had to deal with any other annoyances.

The walk was nice.

Despite not being able to see details, the trees waving in the wind were soothing, and the gentle sound of the wildlife was relaxing. Well as relaxed as Ace would ever be. He could never truly let his guard down, there were enemies everywhere.

Reaching the creaky bridge made a slight smile light up on his face. Soon he’d be back with his partner in crime, collecting the funds for their future. The only thing that mattered anymore really.

His smile fell.

Ace didn’t deserve Sabo. Didn’t deserve to have a friend, to have someone who enjoyed his company, he shouldn’t exist after all, didn’t have the right to exist. He had to work harder to not forget that.

Another deep sigh escaped him before he could stop it. And that irked him. He was starting to sound like Dogra with all his sighing…mental note: stop sighing, could stunt growth.

The first step on the bridge and Ace just emptied his mind.

The second had him trying to focus on the details of the wood.

The third had him glaring at the wood cause his damn eyes wouldn’t focus.

The fourth had him giving up focusing, cause it was a lost cause dammit.

The fifth had him wondering if he’d ever be blind…

The sixth had him shaking his head in anger cause he wasn’t going to be blind, he just had some blurs and couldn’t see detail.

The seventh had him wondering how to tell Sabo that his sight was going out.

Eight, nine, ten, eleven, and twelve had him contemplating all the guys in town who spurned his existence and creative ways he could get rid of them and hide the bodies.

Thirteen all the way to twenty had Ace thinking of different excuses he could tell the damned old man when he came to visit as to why his real grandson died by tree.

Twenty-one, twenty-two, and twenty-three had him fantasizing about the meat he’d be catching later and what it would taste like. Probably like meat…like always.

Twenty-four had him noticing the same presence from earlier behind him.

A swift turn of the head and he saw the damned yellow and red blur, panting lightly and covered it smaller red blurs, which were most likely cuts and scratches from the tree.

Damn kid survived. Devil’s luck.

Ace turned and started walking back towards the new brat. Time to do it the direct way if the indirect didn’t work.

He tightened the grip he had on the pipe and started to run toward the blur, raising the pipe in one of his many forms of fighting. And in just a single moment, Ace hit the kid, Luffy, hard enough to send him into the ravine.

“Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!”

Music to his ears.

**TBC**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hahahaha~ angry little Ace~ :D I will be continue this short side story rather periodically~ it’s going to follow through Ace’s childhood up till he sets sail~ so look forward to that I guess~   
> Sorry it wasn’t a continuation, but hopefully you’ll all still be around to read OBE when I start it back up in August!!   
> Check my profile randomly for updates~ I post them at the top of my page~ :D   
> HAVE A GREAT HOLIDAY!!!


	15. That Song and Dance Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: wahwahwah~ where do I start? 
> 
> Oh gosh I can already tell that this isn’t going to be easy…
> 
> So I guess enjoy the read? Also there is a very important AN and BN to read after this so…please read them, they are important.
> 
> If you have any questions after you read the AN below, contact me at thatonefanficwriternooneknows on Tumblr. DO NOT PM ME.

**Set Sail!**

“Gurarara. Don’t shout too loud, my son, you’ll draw attention to yourself from the nurses. I’m not supposed to be here, they’ll try and confiscate my booze again.” Pops was still speaking jovially and Ace couldn’t help but think that the man had no idea how much he was panicking right now.

“What did Marco tell you?! Why would he tell you?!” Ace was nowhere near calm. He was freaking out. This wasn’t how anyone should have found out. Hell no one should have found out in the first place, dammit.

“When we were getting rid of those marines. He felt we needed to know exactly how serious their slight was against you. I can honestly say that I am glad he told us, it made the revenge all that much sweeter.”

It was weird to hear such things from Pops. It would be even weirder if Ace actually heard what the old man had said. He sort of stopped listening after the first sentence.

Ace’s emotions were an absolute mess right now.

He had just been contemplating romantic notions toward the first division commander but now those were just birds in the wind. Ace knew he was angry, that emotion was easily identifiable, he’d felt it a lot in his eighteen years of life, it was the other ones he was having trouble naming.

One of them hurt. In his heart, just on the side of his ribs, like he’d been punched in the gut. Another one caused him to feel numb, completely numb to everything that wasn’t the other strange feelings. There was a third that pressed at his mind, pulled and stretched it, messing up many of the ideas and emotions he had filed away after joining the crew. The last one scared Ace. It hurt in his eyes, like they were too dry or something, but that wasn’t possible, he took care to blink as naturally as possible, to keep his useless eyes as moist as they could be.

His eyes were burning now, and he couldn’t quite understand why.

Ace couldn’t look to his Pops for any answers, cause he couldn’t SEE HIM, and the man KNEW THAT NOW.

“Get out.” The teen spoke quietly, barely even pushing his voice out of his throat, but he figured it was enough to get the feeling across to the man sitting next to his bed.

“What? Couldn’t hear you, son, gotta speak up to reach these old ears, gurarara!” Pops was still so jovial, Ace wished he could see how the old guy looked. He wished he knew how Marco looked. And Izou, and Thatch, and Haruta, and Jozu, and all of his siblings. But he couldn’t. And he never would.

“GET OUT!!” Ace yelled again, flipping his head to where he knew the old man was sitting, trying to make his face contort to an angry image. But he didn’t know if he could do that anymore, he couldn’t SEE himself.

“Calm down, Ace, you need to-”

Ace cut him off rather spectacularly, didn’t let Pops give him advice, didn’t let him finish his sentence, just cut him off mid-thought.

“DON’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO WITH MY LIFE, OLD MAN!! GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!!”

The teen was breathing heavy, his fire now seeping from his very pores, wrapping him up in a tight cocoon, not letting anyone else in. Not letting anyone see him when he couldn’t return the favor.

“Alright, I’m leaving, son. I hope you feel better soon.” It was the quietest Ace had ever heard his Pops speak and he felt a brief stab of guilt at taking his anger out on his old man, but it was brief for a reason. His anger was taking over everything at this point.

The door shut quietly, the sound tickling at Ace’s sensitive ears, and at the noise the dam broke in the teen’s mind. Things he hid away had started to come crashing down around him. All the emotions he’d had since he first started losing his sight, and when he finally couldn’t see, overwhelmed him.

  **TBC (eventually)**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: I’m sure a lot of y’all can figure out where this is going based on how short this chapter is. 
> 
> Truth is I haven’t written a lick for OBE since last July. Setsu going to Japan was really just a good excuse for me as to why I haven’t been writing. 
> 
> But, I have to admit, despite what I promised a few chapters ago, I have grown to despise this fic. 
> 
> I hate it.
> 
> Every time I get a “reminder” that it’s August, that someone wants me to update soon, that they are looking forward to the continuation, I just get so stressed. Writing this has stopped being enjoyable for me. I dread it. I know what to write, I have a plot line, but every time I sit down to write or try to put my ideas on paper I get stuck. I get horribly horribly stuck and I fall into a depression because I feel so BAD for making people wait so long.
> 
> So I guess what I’m trying to say is, I’ve completely lost the muse I had for this fic. I physically cannot write it anymore. 
> 
> With that said, Once in a Blind Eye is going on hiatus. An undetermined length of hiatus. I don’t want to say it’s discontinued, because I still very much love the ideas I have for this fic, it’s just too stressful for me to write right now. And I have no idea when it’ll become fun for me again. 
> 
> If by the time I’ve completely finished my first Master’s degree I still haven’t gotten my muse back, then I’ll probably announce it as Discontinued. 
> 
> I won’t stop writing all together, I do love it too much to stop. But I’m sure some of y’all have noticed that I’ve rather fallen in love with MarcoAceSabo, so most of my future fics will probably be of that pairing. 
> 
> Again I’m really sorry it’s come to this, but I need to stop stressing myself out about this so it has to be done. I hope to see some of y’all on my other fics.
> 
> Thanks for all the love these past few years. 
> 
> BN: This is Setsu, the beta. So by now you’ve read the AN. I helped convince her to stop because as she said this has taken a toll on her health several times and I care more for her than this fic she started for me. I’d ask that y’all don’t stress her out more and give her a hard time. If that does happen and it affects her health I will convince her to take down this fic and stop writing for it. Please be understanding of her needs to step back from this fic. If you have any issues bother the hell out of me at setsuyume on Tumblr. I understand it is frustrating to suddenly have this fic go on hiatus when you’ve been waiting so long for an update. But DO NOT give her a hard time. Also, as a heads up, if you choose to review for a fic leave anything positive or constructive that isn’t a “please update”. Those aren’t reviews they are politely phrased demands that are frustrating for many authors and don’t really help the muse. You are better off leaving an “I like the chapter” than a “Please update”. That being said I remind y’all DON’T give my best friend a hard time or this fic is dead and gone. Thank you.

**Author's Note:**

> So? What do y’all think? I rather like it~ this is sort of a teaser~ depending on how it’s received I’ll post the rest of the story~ I am gonna write more for it cause Setsu is a dear and wants to read more ^_^
> 
> So some quick notes I know someone is going to ask:
> 
> 1) why is the fire life-like?
> 
> Well first off, I really like the thought of Logia abilities being alive, like a protective guardian, and secondly Ace is blind and to compensate for that his fire becomes “alive”
> 
> 2) He can see with his fire?
> 
> I sort of based this off of Toph from Avatar: The Last Airbender, she can “see” with her earthbending so why can’t Ace “see” with his fire?
> 
> Any other questions just ask ^_^ I promise I will answer them XD


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